


Two Wrongs

by Maejones



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Adventure, Angst and Romance, Canon Compliant, DameRey, Danger, F/M, Humor, Inappropriate Use of the Force, JediPilot, Misunderstandings, Pining, Plot, Smut, Stubbornness, did i mention smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:29:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 41,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23976751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maejones/pseuds/Maejones
Summary: Set after "The Rise of Skywalker", mostly canon compliant. Rey and Poe find themselves inexplicably connected through the force. It's a connection neither of them expected but when they are pressed into a high stakes mission together, they must make the best of it or perish.
Relationships: Damerey - Relationship, Poe Dameron & Rey, Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 148
Kudos: 188





	1. Chapter the First

**Author's Note:**

> I was ruminating one day, heartbroken over Rey being left alone at the end of "The Rise of Skywalker", and this story popped into my head. I really wanted to explore the idea of her being able to find someone else to connect with in a different way. It's kind of a second chance, a turn in the road of life she may never have thought about, but one that so often happens in life. Not all of us get to follow the destiny we imagine, but that doesn't mean what we find is any less fulfilling. So, here is an alternate love story for Rey with our favorite pilot.

Rey bolted upright on her cot and gasped for air like a fish that had been flopped onto shore. She swung her legs over the side of her cot but could not shake the feeling of having been yanked unwillingly from the depths by some unseen tether.

Piercing pain lanced through her wrist. She opened her mouth in a silent scream. She turned it over and flexed as she heard a crack and felt something warm and wet run over her forearm. She had a vision of her flesh ripped open and bones protruding but as she flipped her hand over and back, she realized there was nothing wrong with it. Her arm was perfectly intact. What she experienced was not _her_ pain.

She launched herself from her bed and dashed towards her door. It slid partially open as she approached but became stuck as usual. With a growl, she waved her hand and it crashed back into its pocket. She saw a spark and heard a fizz but ran through the opening, undeterred by having rendered her door inoperable with an overly aggressive use of force. Someone was in trouble and not just anyone, someone connected to her through the force.

She sprinted down the corridor leading from the residences towards the hangers. She followed the distress call into the expanse of the hangars like a rushing stream. It rippled and bubbled around her, ever pulling her forward towards its source. Amber and violet swaths of light swirled and trailed back behind her out of the corner of her eyes. She had never experienced anything quite like it but did not have time to unpack it at that moment.

Finally, she heard something more substantial in the bay. There was a visceral hiss of labored breath followed by a groan, its tremulous tone caused her insides to flush cold. A work light glowed just beyond a large transport ship. She ran around the nose at the same instant legs jerked under a type an x-wing class ship. Her heart rate exploded.

“Poe,” she cried.

“Unh, R-Rey!” he stuttered. “Please . . . help.”

As soon as she dropped to her knees, she knew exactly what she would see, but that did not stop her breath from seizing in her chest. Poe’s hand was caught up in the belly of the x-wing, a panel pinned it just beneath his wrist. Blood dripped like syrup down his arm and dribbled off his elbow onto the concrete floor. He had wedged a bar up to free himself but appeared nearly spent from the effort. His face was pale and sweat slicked his hair.

“I-It slammed shut on me,” he whispered raggedly, “it sh-shouldn’t have done that. I-I decoupled the main inverter-”

Before he could wheeze in his next breath, Rey gathered a great well of force energy and dispatched the panel in a similar manner to her door to her quarters. Poe’s arm dropped out and he slumped back against the concrete.

“Where is BB-8? He should have been hooked up to the computer,” Rey inched forward. “Why wasn’t he here helping you?”

“Finn needed him for a trip to Gervi. Unh, m-my arm,” he panted and mumbled something in a language she did not recognize.

His eyes went impossibly large at the site of his crushed and unnaturally bent hand and forearm. His face blanched. Pain radiated off him like solar flares. Her stomach lurched as throbbing waves pulsed through her body. Again, she was struck by her unexpected connection to Poe, but she pushed her thoughts aside. In the next instant, she scrambled under the fighter and half on top of him. She propped herself up on one arm and held out her hand.

“Give me your arm,” her voice wavered.

She could feel him shaking underneath her frame. His teeth rattled.

“Give me your arm, Poe,” she demanded.

He swallowed and offered his mangled appendage. She wrapped her fingers around the broken wrist. His blood seeped between her fingers. She sucked in a breath and let her weight settle on him so she could place her other hand on his chest. Her fingers delved between the halves of his shirt so she could just rest the pads of her fingers on his skin. She closed her eyes.

She reached out but did not have to reach far. In her mind’s eye, Poe’s potent form pulsed amber and purple. So consuming was his presence that she had to shoo the colours away and reach beyond him to the forests and swamps of their moon. Miles away, a pack of Grundlins danced in the canopy. She tapped their chaotic vigor and pulled it towards her and Poe.

Every cell of her body tingled as the force flowed up through her towards the tips of her fingers. Beneath her palm, Poe’s heart slowed, and his huffed breaths drew out. She felt the shift of bones and the furious knitting of flesh in her other hand. Poe let out a long sigh as the pain eased away. She could feel its violent pangs retreat and shrink like a fading star. Rey focused with all her might on that dull winking, determined to snuff it out completely.

“Rey,” Poe’s voice was rough, “I’m okay.”

She squeezed her eyes tighter and shook her head. Pain remained. A twinkle of it sparkled deep, _deep_ down within Poe. She followed it and started to fall but instead of shrinking, the tiny ball of light seemed to get larger. Around her, Poe’s form began to glow brighter on the amber spectrum. Its intensity increased until she experienced a pull. She gasped. The edges of her being began to dust apart and get sucked into the amber vacuum.

“Rey,” Poe groaned, “s-stop!”

Rey hovered there a moment, trapped in the ether. Inside her mind, she cried out in frustration. She had failed him. He still hurt, but she could not fix it. She could not fix him…

“Stop!”

Next thing she knew, her world tilted off axis and her stomach heaved. Her eyes flew open as she tumbled over. Air whooshed out of her lungs when her back slammed into the floor. She blinked several times as she stared up at Poe. His heavy weight pinned her against the concrete. He hauled in several breaths. A couple loose locks fell forwards over his brow. Rey frowned. His face was shadowed but inexplicably . . . appealing. She swallowed.

She flexed her limbs as she tried to sort out where her body began and his ended. A bit of grit of dirt on a cool slab pressed into the back of her hand. There was pressure around her wrist, it was held to the floor in a vise-like grip. When she peeked sideways, she saw that it was pinned down by Poe’s formerly broken limb which looked very much restored as a lean muscle in his forearm strained. Next, she felt something warm and solid beneath the palm of her left hand. When she tensed her fingers, she discovered a faint bit of chest hair under her digits. She let out a wheeze as she focused. Her other hand was still flattened against him, her fingers half buried between the halves of his white shirt.

She swallowed again, her throat felt tight. Poe was all sorts of on top of her, but her connection to him was much more intimate, like parts of her soul had knitted to his when she had tried to heal his injuries. She feathered in another thread-like breath, suddenly terrified to meet his gaze. Still, she looked up from where her hand quivered on his chest into the deep well of his dark eyes. She did not know where his pupils began, and his irises ended. His lip trembled as he spoke.

“What did you do to me?” he asked raggedly.

His heart rate had picked up again. She could feel its insistent thud under her fingers and the rush of blood through his veins.

“I-I’m sorry,” she replied shakily, “y-you were hurt.”

“Mmph,” his brow furrowed, “I felt you carving into my mind. L-Like a . . . backwater surgeon with a rusty scalpel.”

“I was trying to take the pain away,” she whispered.

A huff of hot air scalded her cheeks. “Some things aren’t yours to take. Don’t ever do that again.”

Rey winced against a sting in the back of her eyes. Whatever she had unwittingly chased down that hole flared and flung off searing shards. The blister of his old injury tore through her psyche. Poe experienced it at the same time as a flashback. He tensed.

“I’m sorry,” Rey rushed out.

She could not help the spontaneous surge of force that poured from her fingertips into his chest. Poe swore and closed his eyes. He dropped his head. His face hovered less than an inch away. He loosened his hold on her other hand only to jerk back her sleeve and rub his thumb across her pulse. She felt his need then, the need to feel the comfort of the force, but not just that . . . there was a powerful urge within him to connect to her again. She felt it too, an insatiable . . . _longing_.

That is when something changed, like a seed sprouted. Rey arched a little, desperate to slake the heady feeling. In a heartbeat, she was plunged back into herself and acutely aware of everything physical. Poe’s heat, his weight, his scent . . . warm and . . . masculine. A sound rumbled in his throat.

“Rey.” His nose brushed hers.

She clutched his shirt. His body surged along hers once and she was rocked against the floor. Her lips parted. She wanted more, more of . . . _whatever that had been_. Her insides coiled into a tight knot.

“Poe,” she pleaded.

“Hmmph, this is such a bad idea,” he muttered.

Lips came down on hers and with them, a rise within her like nothing she had ever experienced. She clutched his shirt and bent against him. Poe groaned from within his chest, its raw rattle vibrated her fingers. She felt unhinged, drugged even. She wanted everything he was doing to her but had no idea how to reciprocate. Tentatively, she opened her mouth and moved her lips. A tremor coursed his frame and a white-hot swell of desire soaked through every fiber of her being. He pressed into her again, his legs, hips and torso promised a kind of unfamiliar dance. She thought she might burst.

Then, their tongues touched, and something did explode. A wave of energy ballooned and mushroomed out. Rey froze as she heard and felt the vibration of a massive crash followed by the squeal and creak of metal. Poe jerked his head up.

“What-?!”

He dragged himself up. Rey scurried to her feet.

Somehow, the x-wing had been flung against the side of the transport ship with its belly ripped open. Rey glanced anxiously at Poe. His mouth was agape. He raked his fingers through his hair as he gulped in breaths.

Rey clenched her teeth and reached for the stricken jet, anxious to fix her mistake. Metal moaned as she lifted and repaired the small craft. She plunked it unceremoniously down next to the transport. Several people, tousled hair and seemingly roused from their sleep, ran into the hangar just as she reformed the damaged cabin of the transport. They all stopped and stared. Rey dropped her hand. She turned a wary eye to Poe. He shook his head and stepped back; fear had glazed over his expression.

Her soul fractured. He was one of the most important allies she had, and she had just given him a reason to distrust her on the basest of levels. She may as well have bitten him.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered miserably.

Then she fled.


	2. Chapter the Second

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe makes a discovery. Rey broods. A misunderstanding leads to bruised and conflicted feelings.

Poe went about his usual morning routine on autopilot even though he felt nothing like his normal self. After the incident with Rey, he had made up a hasty fable of a repair gone awry for their sleep-disturbed spectators and apologized for waking everyone. Then, he had trudged straight to his room and crashed into bed. He had not bothered seeing a medic because not only was his arm as good as ever, but better. He was sure he could crush a blaster in his grasp if given the chance. Not to mention, he did not want to discuss what Rey had done with anyone. The entire episode had been too intimate and even though she scared the shit out of him with her powers, he had the urge to protect the slight Jedi. From what? He did not know.

However, his dreams had been restless. Rey had stalked his unconsciousness all night, a mournful and lonely specter. He could not ascertain if she connected to him through the force or if his mind wrestled with the memory of her devastated expression just before she had run.

Poe stepped out of the shower, rubbed the moisture out of his hair and slipped into his shorts. When he glanced into the mirror, he got a start.

“What the-?” He flicked on the light.

He reached up and ran his fingers through his hair. The little bit of grey that had started to creep in was wholly gone. He poked his face and pushed a finger up between his brows. His worry crease had disappeared, the little laugh lines that normally crinkled at the corners of his eyes had faded and his forehead shone smooth as polished stone. His skin was positively and disgustingly . . . _dewy_. He looked like some cocky, twenty-something junior pilot.

“What did that girl DO?” he muttered.

His eyes flew down. No wonder he felt light in his step! He poked at his stomach. He had abs and not the comfortable working man’s stomach he had become accustomed to, but the too-lean washboard he had not seen for ten years. A thought gripped him, and he frantically snapped at the waistband of his shorts. He let out a sigh of relief. Not that he expected much of a change there, but it was a relief to find something familiar. He chewed his lip. He had a sneaking suspicion it would probably behave like a twenty-something year old cock, though, and that was not going to be helpful at all. As if the fleshy extension knew it was being thought about, it twitched in his shorts.

The kiss with Rey flooded back to him then. He wiped a hand over his mug. There was no coming back from something like _that_. He would never forget the way he could feel her need as much as he could feel his own and know things about Rey he had no business knowing. He squeezed his eyes shut. She had never kissed anyone quite like that nor experienced a man react to her _in that way_. Curses, and she had been starved for it. If she had not blown an x-wing across the hangar, who knows how far they would have gone.

Guilt wracked him. He flexed his hand. She had literally saved him from amputation, and he had not said so much as a thank-you. He had just gotten all horny and ground on her like . . . some twenty-something cock. Well, at least he now looked the part, he told himself sardonically.

“Double damn,” he swore.

He needed to find Rey.

* * *

Rey flicked a tear from the corner of her eye. She had been a bit melancholy all day, but her tears were less due to sadness than frustration. She wrestled with a rather un-Jedi inclination to feel sorry for herself and was losing the battle. It was hard to reconcile that she almost destroyed two ships just because she touched tongues with someone.

_“Eh heh heh heh heeeeeh,”_ a voice cackled from a dusty corner in her mind, _“not the first ships you’ve razed, lil’ lightning fingers. Won’t be the last.”_

“Grrraaaah!” she kicked a rock and sent it flying off the edge of an outcropping.

Her Grandfather Palpatine’s rasp came unbidden like that from time to time, but she was not sure if it was from somewhere in the evil beyond or just a manifestation of her insecurities. He had been destroyed and she was certain he would remain eternally impotent on this plane. Yet, the unsavory reality was that part of him would forever reside within her genetic makeup. His twisted will remained the reason she existed at all. She was a ripple and reverberation of a thought he had translated to action, and so, in a way he lived, and her conscience never skipped an opportunity to remind her of that fact.

Rey sniffled. She was miles from the base along the towering cliffs of the Seers Canyon. She normally lost herself in meditation when she visited its massive expanse. The foliage below was so thick and dense that one could not see the ground, only the odd sliver of river between the trees. There was such an abundance of undisturbed, perfectly balanced life inhabiting the bowl-shaped mark of a meteor that had struck eons ago. Life had risen out of the near planetary obliteration, a few meager cells that multiplied and crept back down into the puncture wound. In this place, dark and light teetered on the edge of a knife. There was enough force brimming over from below that she only needed to sit peacefully and let it wash over her form. A wash she hoped might one day cleanse her soul of her grandfather’s legacy.

That day, her favorite hole in the ground seemed to resist her attempts at penance. Birds squawked and rustled the canopy below. Winds whistled through the leaves. The river churned. She was about to give up on her quest for peace when everything quieted.

Rey sensed his presence before she heard the first crack of a twig beneath his feet. A swish of leaves heralded his intrusion into her bubble.

“Hello, Rey,” Poe murmured.

She rubbed her arms and dropped her chin.

“H-How did you find me?” she asked without turning around.

“Do you really want me to answer that question?”

They were both speaking rhetorically, of course. She knew he had followed the invisible chord that ran between them. She had walked and walked for miles to break the connection, but it stubbornly persisted. Finally, Rey inhaled a fortifying breath and pivoted on the balls of her feet. She jumped at the sight of him. Her breath caught.

Poe smiled tightly and waved a hand down his length. “Courtesy of you, thanks. You healed me a little too well.”

Her eyes raked frantically over his appearance. She chewed the inside of her lip. He was noticeably physically younger by _years_. It was especially jarring because he was already a very handsome man. Freshly relaxed lines and supple skin did nothing to detract from his ridiculous appeal. Oh, and he was _fit_. He had always been fit, but his white shirt strained across a more solid chest and his belt hung lower on leaner hips. She half-turned and took an awkward step. Her face flamed and singed her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry,” she mumbled, wanting to fade away like a force ghost.

Poe shook his head. She could not help noticing the way he stepped cautiously in her direction. His hands were slightly raised as if he approached a wild beast.

“No, you don’t need to be sorry,” he sighed, “it’s me who should apologize.”

He paused several feet away and pushed a hand through his hair. His shoulders lifted with a deep inhalation.

“I am sorry,” he repeated, “for everything. Rey, just so you know, I am incredibly grateful for what you did last night. That panel almost severed my arm. I-I thought my flying days were over, at least, my kind of flying.”

Rey nodded. “I’m glad I could . . . help.”

Poe huffed something and stalked closer. He was anxious, she sensed, but much less afraid than at the close of the previous evening.

“I also want to apologize for the way I reacted,” he said in a low tone, “I should not have kissed you. I know that’s against your Jedi code and all-”

Rey harrumphed a laugh. “What code?”

He made a face and shrugged. “I thought there was a code.”

She snorted. “Doesn’t really apply when you’re the only one.”

Poe bobbed his head. “Yeah, I guess . . . but-”

“Anyway, I’m not a Jedi,” Rey rushed out. “I took no vows or joined a council or anything. There is no one to govern me but myself a-and . . . I’m just a girl.”

His brow twitched up. A grin curved up one corner of his mouth. He shrugged almost imperceptibly.

“A girl who can toss jets with her mind.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Ok, yeah, b- but still just a girl.”

Poe wagged his head again in disagreement. He stepped forward, crowding into her space. She instinctively wanted to protect him but had nowhere to retreat. At her back, the cliff dropped hundreds of feet straight down. He tentatively touched her arms then slid his hands to her face.

“Damn,” he ground out, his brow furrowed, “I’m doing it again.”

She found herself consuming him with her eyes, no longer able to admire him in an aloof, theoretical manner as she had previously. Her admiration of him was more particular, it had become an _attraction_. She did not just know his dark eyes and winged brows adhered to an acceptable standard of beauty, she felt it. When those same brows drew together just a little further, her stomach tingled.

“Y-You’re not afraid of me?” she marveled.

“There aren’t any x-wings here,” he murmured.

“No, I guess not,” she licked her lips.

Poe’s dark eyes flashed. He swore and next thing she knew, his lips slammed down. Rey clutched at his waist. She felt several rushes through her abdomen as his lips moved. With a small whimper, she began to kiss him back. His arms tensed and relaxed alternately, like he could not decide whether to continue or break away. Finally, he groaned and sank into the kiss, one hand slid around the back of her next while the other slid lower to the small of her back.

Rey’s knees nearly melted when she felt a calloused hand grip her where the two halves of her simple tunic and loose pants separated. Energy built between them, not unlike the swell they’d experienced the night before, but she managed to contain it this time. Poe seemed to sense her struggle and tore away momentarily.

“You . . . good?” he panted; his lips hovered.

“Uh, huh,” she whispered roughly.

He nodded and chased her mouth up. She felt the warmth of his breath over her lips. Their noses bumped. He teased her again with a fly by and she huffed a breath. Poe chuckled and curled his fingers on her back.

Rey moaned. “Don’t tease me-”

Poe kissed her before she could admonish him further. Then she felt the first flick of his tongue. She started trembling. She wanted to do so much more but was afraid of flattening the forest around them. Poe’s thumb stroked the side of her neck, his lips slowed, and he gently urged her to open her mouth. She finally relented with a sigh and their tongues met with the faintest of static charges. She held onto his hard torso for life. The back and forth, the slide, the _intrusion_ of him felt downright indecent. Deep in her tummy, between her legs, she felt a gathering and followed by the emptiest of aches.

“Hu-uh,” Poe lifted his head and gasped for air. “Phew. Rey, I can hardly deal with my own impulses, let alone yours. How do you do that?”

He continued to hold her but pulled her more into an embrace. He caught his breath against the side of her neck.

“Do what?”

His fingers kept tensing and releasing on her back.

“I don’t know, the thing. One second I’m me, the next second, it’s we.”

She swallowed. “It’s probably because I healed you. I-I had to put myself into that, a part of me melded with you-”

“Mmnn,” he made a sound as if to reject the notion, “nah, we were connected before all that.”

Rey did not know how to respond. She could connect to anyone, truly, but that was a matter of will. Poe was force sensitive, as were most pilots, so he could put also dangle himself out there. Yet, he was right. They were attuned somehow. However, it was not like her connection with Ben Solo had been. It was not as powerful nor as singular. It was just its own thing, like a stray with questionable lineage. She almost snorted. _Like her._

“Rey,” Poe pulled back to gaze at her face.

He sighed. His eyes skittered back and forth in scrutiny. Conflict rose in him.

“I don’t know what this is,” he mumbled, “I don’t even know if it’s real.”

She stiffened. “What do you mean?”

Rey spun away from him. She stumbled over a root towards the trees before she pivoted unsteadily. When she looked back at Poe, a wind rustled his shirt and hair like some irritating rebel propaganda advertisement.

“I mean, I’ve always thought you were an attractive woman . . . but before yesterday-”

She grimaced. She felt the sting of rejection. Then it was replaced by anger.

“You think I put these thoughts in your head?” she ground out.

He shook his head. “No, I mean, erm, not exactly. Not intentionally!”

Heat flooded her face. She paced in front of the trees.

“Oh, good grief, so . . . what? Do you believe I harbor some secret crush on you, and I am subconsciously manipulating you? Y-You think I’m just infatuated by-” she waved her hand at him “-this?”

Poe pressed his lips together and lifted his shoulders. His eyes widened briefly with a kind of ‘ _you’re not wrong’_ expression. He cleared his throat. “It happens more often than you’d think.”

“Your ego is unbelievable!” she cried.

Rey was mortified beyond belief. She felt like such a fool.

“Look,” he advanced tentatively, “I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know how any of this force stuff works.”

She held up a hand. “Clearly.”

“Rey-”

She backed away, desperate to escape further humiliation. “We’re good, okay? We’re done.”

She whirled, grabbed her bag which she had hung on a branch and fled. Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, no, this isn't going well for either of them!


	3. Chapter the Third

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maz tasks Rey and Poe with a dangerous quest but our pair seemingly wants nothing to do with one another.

“Maz!”

Rey rushed across the command room to embrace her friend.

“It’s been too long!” she whispered.

The older woman patted her on the back.

“Sorry, my dear,” she replied with a rasp, “just because the first order is gone, doesn’t mean things aren’t still a bloody mess out there.”

“Your voice,” Rey whispered, “are you alright-?”

Something moved out of the corner of her eye. Rey jumped. She instinctively popped on her lightsaber and urged Maz back. Its yellow glow illuminated a figure in the corner. A very recognizable form stepped out of the shadow.

“Poe!”

“Whoa! Relax!” he said with a scoff.

Rey dropped her arm but glowered at him a moment before she switched her humming saber off again. He narrowed his eyes as well and his lips set in a line. She countered with a perturbed twist of an eyebrow. Then it hit her. She had not sensed him in the room. She could not sense him at that moment. He blinked at her and seemed to come to the same realization. His orbs rounded. Rey glanced quickly to Maz.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

Maz chuckled. “Oh, relax, children, I just disrupted your connection. I knew I’d never get you in the same room otherwise.”

Poe stepped forward. “Wait, you can turn it off? Can you, like-” his eyes slid to Rey warily and his voice dropped “-turn it off permanently?”

Rey gritted her teeth and stretched her neck. Maz peered at her with amusement before she turned her knowing gaze back to Poe.

“You mean sever the connection?”

“Yes,” Poe nodded emphatically.

“No,” Maz’s grin widened, “that’s not how the force works.”

Poe sighed and jammed his hands on his hips. “Wonderful.”

He was not finished, though. He gestured with a finger back and forth between himself and Rey.

“Just out of curiosity,” he queried, “how does one sever a connection?”

Maz licked her teeth. “Simple. You stop wanting it.”

Poe shook his head and opened his mouth to retort but Maz held up a hand.

“Enough chit chat, my younglings, I’m sure you’ll sort it all out eventually. In the meantime, I need you to do something for me.”

“What?” Rey and Poe said at the same time.

They glared at one another.

Maz sighed and hopped onto one of the control room chairs. Her legs dangled off the floor as she leaned over the conference table.

“Listen now, and don’t interrupt. I inhaled a cloud of ash back on Halgin and I don’t know how much longer I can speak before my voice gives out.”

Both Rey and Poe slipped into chairs opposite of their friend. Rey set her saber down on the table.

“You want to point that away from me?” Poe grumbled.

Rey sneered at him. “It’s double sided.”

“Why am I not surprised?” he huffed.

Maz tapped a finger on the table’s surface impatiently. Rey cleared her saber off and reholstered it.

“If you’re not already aware, I’m a bit of a collector,” Maz cleared her throat, “but I don’t just do it out of curiosity. There are powerful artifacts out there that can unleash unspeakable horrors if they fall into the wrong hands. Since I am one of the rare creatures that lives as long as I do, and understands these objects in a way few can, I have made it my life’s work to collect and safeguard them.”

Rey’s lips parted. “Like Luke’s lightsaber.”

“Yes, exactly,” Maz coughed. “After the First Order destroyed my tavern, looters made off with most of my collection. I’ve spent the last few months tracking down some of the more dangerous items, but it has taken its toll…”

Maz started hacking. Rey frowned. Her friend’s dry coughs shook her small frame.

“Maz?”

“Don’t concern yourself with me, child,” she wheezed, “I’ll be fine. I just need some time to rest-”

Maz started coughing so violently, she doubled over the table. Rey and Poe both rushed to either side of the small matriarch. Their eyes met. He twitched his brows and dipped his head at Maz. Rey nodded and laid a hand on her chest. Rey closed her eyes.

“Uhg, please,” Maz cleared her throat and pushed Rey’s hand away, “that won’t work on me.”

“What? Why?”

She cackled a low laugh. “That only works in . . . particular situations. Ah, you have much to learn.”

“What can we do?” Poe asked gruffly.

“Th-The artifacts,” Maz rasped, she fished out a pocket drive, “where is your little droid? Is he back from his trip with Finn?”

“Yeah, just a sec.”

Poe stood up at whistled. BB8 careened around the corner and rolled up. He started tweeting excitedly at Rey.

“Hi, yes, yes. I know. We were fine here. The x-wing? I-I uh, don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said quickly.

Poe coughed. “Hey, buddy, we need your comm port.”

BB8 chirped an affirmative and popped out a panel. Once the drive was inserted, the little droid displayed a series of holograms.

“These three relics are among the most dangerous in my former collection and I’ve had no end of trouble trying to collect them. They don’t want to be found,” Maz explained.

Rey studied the holograms. There was a mask, a short staff and some sort of amulet or badge.

“They’re Sith,” Rey breathed.

“Yes,” Maz replied.

Poe huffed. “Why didn’t you destroy these when you had the chance?”

Maz’s face scrunched up. She sighed. “That’s- … I will explain this to you another time, Poe. For now, I just need you to recover them. You and Rey.”

Poe frowned. “Wait, what? Together? Why?”

“I don’t need his help,” Rey said gruffly.

“You do,” Maz coughed, “every great misadventure begins with a fool who thinks they can go it alone.”

Rey’s face flamed but Maz looked at Poe with constricted eyes. Rey and Poe both fell silent and listened as Maz laid out a few more details and implored them to set off on their quest as soon as possible. As they were leaving the room, however, she covertly snagged Poe’s shirt. BB8 rolled after Rey as she exited, oblivious to his master’s failure to keep up.

“She’s going to try to leave you behind,” Maz warned him, “but you cannot allow her to recruit someone else or attempt these retrievals without your assistance.”

Poe sighed. “Why? Why does it have to me?”

Maz nodded in empathy. Her voice was nearly gone, it had become painfully scratchy.

“Because you know what it is like to follow your inclinations and fail. You know the despair of unfathomable loss. You know these things in a way that Rey cannot yet comprehend.”

He felt a tremor set in. Her words aged his soul a hundred years. He wanted to beg her to reconsider her request. He did not need to be psychic to see the bleakness of the road ahead.

“She will not come back without your help, Poe,” Maz rasped, “she is going to be wrong and you are the only one who will be able to save her from herself.”

Poe swallowed. “Wh-What if I fail?”

Maz’ lips set, her voice dropped lower and the full weight of his burden hit Poe like a blaster shot to the chest.

“Then neither of you will return.”

Her face was grim for a moment but then, like the sun peaking through clouds, she grinned.

“But I have confidence in you, Poe Dameron. Two wrongs will make a right.”

He grimaced and tilted his head. “That’s- … never mind.”

Maz gave him a little push towards the door. “Go, catch up to her! She’s already talking to Finn.”

* * *

Poe picked up his pace across the hangar. Finn looked up to him over Rey’s shoulder with wide eyes. As soon as their eyes met his shoulders dropped, and he appeared to sigh in relief. Rey half turned her head with a scowl.

“Hey, Finn, Rey filling you in on our mission?” Poe asked dryly.

“Ah, yeah, yeah, but you know, Maz talked to me earlier-”

Rey swore. Poe suppressed a chuckle. The girl could probably crush them all with an errant thought, but she could not sound fierce to save her life.

“Well, then you know all about our quest,” Poe quipped.

His voice had a bit of an edge. Rey’s nostrils flared in reaction. Finn nodded slowly. His eyes clouded with apprehension.

“Yeah, I know.”

It was at that instant Poe glanced down and noticed a thick bandage covering Finn’s hand. He was gripped by a sudden recollection of his own hand being nearly cut off by his x-wing.

“What the hell happened?”

Rey’s head snapped up with a thought. “You've collected items for Maz already.”

Finn’s lips turned down. Guilt twisted his features.

“Yeah . . . yeah I did.”

“And-?”

Finn looked away a moment. His brows twitched.

“I would rather not talk about it.”

Rey apologized and quickly hugged him. Poe turned and stepped under the Millennium Falcon to give them a moment. He was not worried about Rey enlisting Finn to take his place anymore. Rey would not ask Finn to make further sacrifices, not when he had already paid a price for his involvement. Poe tried not to eavesdrop on their conversation, but it was difficult to quell his curiosity. Even more so to tamp down on his envy. He growled at himself and set about inspecting the vent ports on the Falcon. He did not resent Finn at all. He just wished he had the same kind of ease with Rey. They were always at odds, always mildly irritated with one another. Except when they were mashing their lips together. However, since their fall out three days before, they had not spoken at all.

Poe felt the blood drain from his face. He had no idea how long this mission would take. It could be days or weeks. How was he supposed to figure out their little complication if they were to spend time together in the confines of the Falcon? When he peered back at Rey and Finn, he saw that Rey had managed to sneak away. He sighed and hurried back to Finn.

“Where’d she go?”

Finn jerked his chin. “That way, to find Chewie.”

Poe huffed out a breath. “Damn, ok, gotta go, Finn.”

He gave Finn a quick bear hug. He paused a moment when he met his friend’s gaze again. Finn’s lip quirked up. Poe’s stomach roiled at the thought this might be the last time he ever saw his friend. There had been an underlying apprehension in Maz' voice when they spoke, and somehow he just knew that their return was less likely than she had led on.

“Be seeing you, Finn,” he mumbled.

He didn't want to say a goodbye. He had said too many in his lifetime.

“Take care of yourself, buddy,” Finn returned with a knowing glint in his eyes, “take care of Rey.”

“I’ll try.”

Finn shook his head. “No, don’t try. _Do it_.”

Poe nodded. “Yes, sir.”


	4. Chapter the Fourth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Poe find themselves in a tricky situation, in more ways than one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, how do I tease thee? Well, I start with chemistry, pull back, and then ratchet up the tension.

Rey crossed her arms and leaned back in the Falcon’s pilot seat before she whacked one heel and then the other on top of the ship's console. Poe banged at the cockpit door.

He shouted something through the panel. With a sigh, she jabbed at a console button. The door slid open with a hiss.

“May I help you?” she called in a sing-song voice.

Poe huffed and plunked himself hard down into the co-pilot’s chair. BB8 chirped at the cockpit entry but then made a whoop and whizzed away towards the heart of the Falcon with his little droid shadow D-0 hot on his heels. Rey’s nose wrinkled. The droids had been doing that since they departed. Poe stared at her pointedly for a second with overt annoyance before he glowered at the console. He quickly punched a few things into the controls array. The Falcon’s auxiliary boosters fired up.

“You’re a tad overconfident in your trajectory, sweetcheeks,” he said flatly, “you really think we’re going to be able to land on Dandor at this angle?”

Rey’s hackles raised at his caustic tone but she shrugged. “The Falcon has an excessive amount of bulwarking in the forward panels. She was built for this kind of thing.”

Poe yanked back on the booster column and the ship shuddered. Rey’s spine stiffened. She could feel the inertial forces then, and the way the gravitational field wanted to fling the ship outwards. Her face heated. She sat up rigidly in her seat.

“Look, Princess, landing on a torroid planet isn’t just any old thing,” Poe ground out as he yanked on his harness, “you try to come in on it linearly like that and you will end up torn apart and sprinkled along the internal equator like confetti. I’ve seen it happen.”

He poked at the intercom and turned his face up. “BB, you and D-0 need to strap in.”

Rey quickly belted herself in and started furiously jabbing in new co-ordinates. “Where do we break through? What’s the vector? Into the upper troposphere?”

Poe sniffed. “Yeah, turn her into the magnetic currents, but keep her tight. We have to stay within two meters all around. Got it?”

Rey nodded.

“Got it!?”

“Yes, sir, General Dameron, sir!” she saluted him.

He grumbled something under his breath.

“Did you check the weather beacons?”

“Yup. It’s, um . . . gusty on the surface.”

He snorted. “Curses, I hate torroids. Oop, there it is!”

Rey blinked at the spectre outside the ship. Dandor really did look like . . . a giant donut. It was one of only a few torroid planets, an extremely rare physics phenomenon left over from the birth of the universe. The planet spun so fast in its axis that it could not hold the shape of sphere. Instead, it presented more like a tubular ring. She shook her head. She could see it rotating as they approached. No wonder its days were mere hours long.

“I can’t believe these things actually exist,” she breathed.

Poe smirked. His eyes lit up for a second.

“There are so many awesome sights out there, Rey. When I was a kid. . . ”

Poe’s voice trailed off. He gazed out over Dandor a minute. His brow creased. Rey sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. There was that twinkle of pain again. Poe frowned sideways.

“Stay out of my head.”

“Oh, get over yourself,” she groaned, “how about you put a lid on your angsty memories and save us both the trouble?”

Rey’s jibe set off an argument and they started bickering even as the ship spiralled towards the surface of Dandor. Controlling the Falcon’s descent became an afterthought as they hurled insults at one another. It was not until BB8 started squawking over the intercom from where he was plugged into the ship’s mainframe that Rey realized there was a problem.

“Oh, blast,” she cried, “the aft booster is running too hot. It’s going to blow out-”

Before she could even get the words out, a small explosion rocked one side of the ship. Rey’s stomach lurched as the Falcon pitched sideways.

“Oh, no, no, no!” Poe yelped.

He tried to correct the pitch, but the ship started wobbling. The wobble grew until they were being slammed in their seats. The harness scraped against Rey’s collar. She banged her knee on the console.

“Hu-uh,” Poe’s voice shook, “we’re losing it. We’re going to slam into the ground.”

Rey gathered herself, closed her eyes and steadied her rattling yoke. As if instructions were whispered in her ear, she fumbled with some trim settings and the wobble decreased. At the last second, the Falcon tipped up and they clipped the top of some short, conical trees. Then, inexplicably, the flight smoothed, and they cruised into a clearing. She looked over at Poe. She wasn’t entirely sure she was going to be able hold onto her lunch.

“I got this,” he murmured.

She peeled her sweaty fingers from the yoke and collapsed back in her seat as he set the Falcon down. The planets winds roared around the hull and buffeted the front panels. They both sat stunned in their harnesses for several moments.

She did not notice Poe had moved until he unclipped the buckle at her waist. She swallowed. Her eyes darted up to him as he pushed the belts from her shoulders. He grimaced. She felt the exploration of his fingers along the side of her neck. She reached up and their fingers brushed. He jerked his hand back and cleared his throat.

“You okay?” he asked roughly. “That’s quite a scrape.”

Rey rubbed her lips together. “F-Fine.”

The skin on her neck burned a little, like someone had rubbed sandpaper against her flesh, but she would survive. When she stood up, Poe cussed. Shadows danced across his face. Dusk rapidly fell outside the ship.

“Hmph, you’re bleeding.”

She glanced down to a dark spot on her knee that seemed to be spreading.

“Come on,” he took her hand, “let’s get you fixed up.”

Poe tugged her to the main lounge area and directed her to sit as he retrieved their first aid kit. Rey rolled up the leg of her pant over her knee with shaking hands. She was still a bit out of sorts. Fortunately, it was a relatively small gash that arced over her kneecap. In fact, less than an inch long and barely oozing a trickle of blood as opposed to gushing.

“Here, let me,” he kneeled and began sponging the wound with a wet wipe.

Rey stared down at the top of his mass of thick, dark hair and the vee of his brows. It was oddly intimate to gaze down over his cheeks and nose and watch the edges of his lips twitch as he tended her injury. She inhaled and smelled the slight tang of woodsy soap. Even as the wind howled outside the Falcon, she was hyper-aware of the silence within its walls and the fact that they were very much alone, save for their droids who were strangely absent.

“I’m sorry I can’t just make it magically heal with some force shenanigans,” he murmured as he applied a bandage.

Rey snorted a faint laugh. “That would probably be more trouble than it’s worth.”

Poe grinned and glanced up. She held her breath. His faint smile was devastating to her equilibrium. What right did he have to be so handsome, she wondered? His eyes appeared to flit over her face at the same time, like he was trying to glean something. Between the thud of a heartbeat, his eyes held hers and she felt the moment draw out.

Then a blast of wind vibrated Falcon and caused the hull to groan in protest. Poe shook his head and leapt to his feet.

“Well, it’s dark and seems like the wind is picking up!” he proclaimed, “I don’t think we should risk trying to find that settlement until day breaks which is like, what? Three hours away?”

He kind of paced back and forth as if agitated.

“And I bet you need a rest too, huh? Shall we go to bed? I mean – go to sleep . . . in our separate beds-" he held a hand to his ear "-Oop, what was that, BB8?”

Rey frowned. “I didn’t hear him-”

“Yeah, yeah, buddy, I’m coming!” Poe called as he escaped down the corridor towards the back of the Falcon.

Rey heard the swish of a door and sighed.

“Well,” she muttered to herself, “at least this time _he_ ran away.”

* * *

Rey no sooner fell asleep than daybreak arrived. She had crashed on the cot in the lounge rather than found her way to either of the crew quarters or the captain’s chamber. She had not been sure which Poe had chosen to sleep in and did not want to walk in on him. She had been making a concerted effort to suppress her sense of him and managed to reduce his presence from a bright bulb in her periphery to more of a faint glow. 

BB8’s chirping yanked her from her tumultuous slumber. Their little droids were far too excited to be on an adventure with them. BB8 cooed about it almost every other syllable and D-0 inevitably followed. Even then, BB8 greeted her with an animated series of updates before he cried what could only be translated as, _“I like this!”_ D-0 bobbed his head up and down in agreement.

“L-L-Like this t-too,” D-0 stuttered in his synthesized voice.

As they rolled around the corner on his way to rouse Poe, she heard them chatting and repeating the sentiments down the corridor.

 _“I like this! I like this!”_ BB8 warbled.

“M-Me too. Me too. Me t-too.”

Rey scooted off her cot and sprinted to the fresher, hoping to beat Poe. The door slid open just as she was about to go inside.

“Ack!”

Poe was just stepping out of the fresher. His chest was bare, hips swaddled in a towel and hair curled with moisture. Rey’s eyes flicked over him nervously. She chewed her lip. He tensed up, his abs rippled, and a vee of muscle appeared just above the edge of the towel. Her face flushed with heat like she had stood too close to afterburners firing up. She threw a hand over her eyes.

“Y-You just going to wander the ship like that?” she admonished him.

Poe scoffed. “Ain’t no one I know can get dressed in a fresher that small, but you’re welcome to try.”

He stepped past her. When Rey peeked through her fingers, he looked over his shoulder and smirked.

“Good morning to you too, by the way,” he murmured. “Oh, and the Captain’s chambers are all yours, fyi. You don’t have to sleep in the lounge.”

Rey glowered down at the floor. “You’re . . . bigger, I mean, broader . . .erm, crap, taller! You should take the Captain’s chambers.”

He snorted. “Nah, all things equal? It’s the pilot who lands the ship that makes that claim.”

Before Rey could protest anymore, he strolled away. She could not contain herself and glanced up just as he disappeared around the bend. Muscles flexed in his back as he cinched his towel. Two deep dimples on his hips winked. At the last second, the light shifted as he strode past a hallway strobe and she observed a splash of discoloured skin spanning from just below his rib cage on one side up to his shoulder on the other. It was the tell-tale signature of a long-ago burn. She bit her lip. From its appearance, it had to have been painful.

_“Some things aren’t yours to take.”_

Poe's words sprang to mind. She forgot sometimes that he was a good third older than her and had lived an entire life before she had arrived. He was a complicated being with a soul that folded back on itself in countless directions. Their connection gave her but a hazy view into the maze within, and certainly no more insight than what he subconsciously allowed.

Rey sighed and stepped into the fresher. They only had a few hours of daylight to make their first acquisition. She did not have time to dwell on Poe’s internal machinations so she pushed thoughts of his past from her curious mind.

His external attributes were a little harder to dismiss in the confines of the refresher, though.


	5. Chapter the Fifth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Poe set out to find their first relic.

Poe trudged ahead of Rey with his shoulders slumped slightly and his body bowed. She did not need to use the force to know how he felt. They had been hiking against the winds of Dandor for hours, a task akin to wading upstream on their moon base during the rainy season. Unfortunately, the Falcon needed some panelling and a fulstem cylinder before she could fly safely, let alone leave orbit, which meant they had to trek by foot to Dandor City.

BB8 forged ahead of them, his low bearing and cylindrical shaped lent itself better to cutting through the gusts. D-0 was strapped to her back. His wheel had proved to be a hindrance and he had been unable to roll without a blast of air knocking him over. This had led to an argument, of course. Poe thought D-0 should stay behind at the Falcon. Rey felt compelled to bring him, an impulse she could not explain. After some back and forth that went nowhere, Poe had thrown up his hands.

_"Fine, but I'm not carrying him."_

_"I didn't ask you!"_

Rey gritted her teeth. She would never admit it, but Poe had been right. Her shoulders ached. D-0 hadn't seemed that heavy at first. Yet with every step, she swore he gained mass. 

"Whoop," Rey tripped over a craggy root and stumbled forward.

She felt a hand grasp her arm. She expected to gaze into a pair of agitated brown eyes. Instead, Poe tugged his scarf down from his face, moved his goggles up and leaned in with a look of concern. 

"I can take him for a bit," he shouted over the wind.

She shook her head weakly. "I'm fine!"

Poe rolled his eyes. Without a word, he spun her by her shoulders and eased D-0 from her back. He poked his arms through the harness, hoisted the little droid up and bobbed his head.

"S-S-Sorry," D-0 stammered over Poe's shoulder.

Rey stood up and stretched her neck. Poe stared at her a few moments. His lips twitched like he might say something further, but he clapped them shut again. He tugged his scarf back up and snapped his goggles into place. With a tilt of his head, he urged her to follow. He made his way across the scrubby field to a stand of squat, v-shaped trees. As soon as they stepped past the first few trunks, Rey almost cried in relief. Not only did the trees offer a reprieve from their bitter wind lashing, but it was noticeably quieter among them like they stepped into a sound-dampened cockpit.

Poe traced his finger over the uniform ridges along the edge of one tree trunk. He tugged down his scarf again.

"It's amazing how life adapts, even here. I think these trees actually buffer sound and look-" he pointed at the cavity behind the trunks where water pooled, and little ferns grew "-they make this place hospitable..."

BB8 chirped and scooted back and forth in place.

Poe rubbed his temples. "Ah, you're right BB, we've been going about this the wrong way."

He stared into the shadows of the stand of trees for several moments. His attention shifted to Rey. She held her breath. At times, being in his company was excruciating. Despite their simmering animosity, her physical attraction to him had only increased. Every curve and line of his face burned into her psyche as if her brain slashed it in with fireplace poker. His lips parted in slow motion and she thought she might flare and blow away like cinders in a breeze.

"Rey-" his brows drew together "-can you use the force at all? Dusk is approaching. We need to find shelter. Look, I know you are suppressing yourself. I can still feel you but it's like walking next to a cracked hyper dri-"

She frowned and yanked her own face covering aside. "It's not because of you!"

Well, it was not completely because of him, she lamented silently.

His lips turned down. He shook his head and cast his eyes to the ground for a moment, clearly frustrated. He shrugged D-0 from his back.

Rey swallowed. "It's this place."

Poe let the little droid out from his confines and glanced up again with raised brows.

"Everything here is old. I mean, really, _really_ _old_ and dark," her voice trembled as panic set it, "it's unbalanced. I haven't felt this much darkness since Exegol."

She reached sideways and shakily pressed her hand against a tree trunk. As soon as she opened herself up, she immediately sensed the dark force energy that ran between the fibres of the trees like over-caramelized syrup. She dipped a finger in the little pond formed at its base. The pool rippled and went black as ink. She jerked her hand back from it just as something nipped at her finger.

Then, all of a sudden, the edges of her periphery blew out. The pool widened to a lake before her eyes. The earth shook beneath her feet and threw her off balance. She fell forward towards the water as a giant fin cut the surface. A gaping maw opened. Teeth flashed like jagged black crystals.

“Rey,” a voice rumbled, “join me . . .”

She screamed. “Poe!”

Just before she was enveloped by the churning lake, she felt a firm grasp jolt her arm backwards. She spun, tripped, tumbled in the opposite direction, and fell right on top of a firm body.

“Guh!”

She blinked down at Poe. He shook stars from his eyes before they rounded. His hands gripped either side of her face.

“Breathe!” he commanded.

“Huuuh,” she inhaled deeply.

His eyes flicked back and forth frantically. Thumbs rubbed her cheeks. She was there, but she felt like she had been jolted outside her body.

“Rey,” he murmured, “come back to me.”

She surrendered to the pull of his voice and floated back down into her form. Tears clouded her vision and she choked up. She collapsed against him and buried her face in his neck. His hands cradled her head and threaded into her hair. His fingers massaged her scalp. He hummed encouragement in her ears, speaking again with a lilt in a language she didn't know. Whatever it was, it was exactly what she needed to hear. Her heart rate slowed.

“So, that was the dark side,” he finally muttered.

Rey lifted her head. “W-Wait, you could see it?”

He gave a curt shake of his head. His lips pressed together briefly. His fingers continued to fiddle in her hair beneath one of her buns.

“Just in your eyes. They went black and I saw the glint of water.”

“D-Did you hear anything?”

Poe's forehead bunched in confusion. “You screamed my name. Why? Was there something else?”

Rey stared down at Poe, uncertain of what to say. Ben’s voice had called to her from the dark, or had it been his alter ego Kylo Ren? His words had been the same ones he used in the throne room after he killed Snoke. It was possible she just heard an echo from that event as the dark side plundered her tortured psyche. Yet, his voice had sounded more substantial than a mere memory. It was as if he had been right there, beckoning her into the depths, but not quite with the evil intent as before. He had just seemed . . . lonely.

“Rey?” Poe prodded.

Poe’s soft prompt tore through her consciousness. She could not find the words. Guilt and shame overwhelmed her sensibilities. When Ben had been consumed with the dark side, when he had been Kylo Ren, he had tortured Poe. If he had been able to sense Poe’s secrets as she had, no doubt he had exploited them. How could she possibly make Poe understand the agony of being separated from the other half of her dyad when her other half had done such terrible things? Without Ben Solo she felt incomplete, like a bird with one wing torn from its back. On top of all that, she was terrified that she would be claimed by dark side of the force when it rushed into the vacuum he left behind.

Yet, Poe was there, bright with the light side of the force. She heard her name pass his lips again before she dropped her own to his and kissed him. His mouth tensed at first, but his fingers curled into her hair, and he returned the caress with a sigh. Rey experienced a wash of tingles in her belly. His lips were pliant, slightly moist, and just barely restrained. Before the kiss could deepen, she leapt back off him. When she looked sideways, both droids’ heads were tilted towards one another as they watched curiously. BB8 emitted a little squeal and then cooed, for lack of a better description.

Rey’s face heated when she peered at Poe. Their eyes met as he stood up and she felt exposed again. She swallowed. She decided she was not even going to address what she had just done lest he accuse her of manipulating his feelings again. Still, they stared at one another for an inordinately long time. His eyes were full of questions. As she folded back in on herself, the tendrils of his thoughts retreated from her consciousness. He was confused and a little irritated but still concerned about what she had just experienced. However, she remained silent long enough that his vision clouded over and his gaze shuttered. He huffed and brushed himself off, then turned his attention to the droids.

“Think you can continue on your own, D-0?” Poe mumbled.

“Into th-th-the trees?” D-0’s head waved towards the forest.

Poe nodded. “Yup.”

He glimpsed towards Rey with a somber expression. “Unless you think it’s the wrong path?”

“No,” she replied, “this is the way.”

* * *

Miraculously, just before the sun set completely for another short nightfall, Rey, Poe and the droids finally found some civilization. However, it was not Dandor City but a smaller settlement. When Poe fired up his personal communicator, a broadcast from the village indicated that they had reached Kyte.

Kyte consisted of a towering, white pyramid-like structure that rose through the trees with several outbuildings scattered around its base. Three tall spires rose from the top of the structure. At their peaks, massive turbines that looked much like the engines from jets, harnessed the winds. As they neared, Rey saw that the main building was not a closed pyramid, but rather had a v-shaped architecture similar to the unique trees that grew on Dandor. The two wings of the building consisted of curving, pod-like protrusions stacked on top of one another. As the sun rapidly set, lights from the windows cast a glow on the surrounding vegetation and she could see that they were individual dwellings.

“This is a good place,” Rey murmured.

“Yeah, well, that’s a relief,” Poe muttered, “because they are broadcasting a ‘stay inside due to dry freeze conditions’ warning. We need shelter.”

“Is that why every sliver of exposed skin feels like it’s been dipped in Lorincian spice?” Rey quipped.

Poe grunted. “Yep. Apparently, the winds we walked through were ‘mild’ today. They’re supposed to pick up in twenty minutes or so to ‘high probability of peeling’. Erm, I’m thinking we should maybe get our butts to the main entry asap?”

Rey nodded. “Agreed.”

She scooped up D-0 and their party swiftly traversed the gusty clearing. Along the base of the structure, several shopkeepers rolled shutters down over the storefronts in preparation for nightfall and the high winds. There seemed to be an eclectic mix of beings which put Rey at ease. Many of them nodded, another positive sign. They were obviously used to visitors.

At the main entry, they were greeted by a Vahla woman just inside the blast-resistant doors. Her attire was similar to Rey’s; she wore loose linens signature of a nomadic upbringing.

“Hahpa, I am Kistra” she murmured as she stood and leaned over the counter of her alcove, “are you shift replacements for the mine or traders?”

Her wide, lavender eyes narrowed as she assessed them. Kistra’s form pulsed before Rey’s eyes and a dark halo flashed behind her cream-hued tresses. She was force sensitive and attuned to the dark side, much like most of the life on Dandor. Yet, Rey felt no malice within her, just a rather clinical curiosity. Rey was confused. How could this woman maintain an essentially indifferent connection to the dark side?

“Ah, you are neither,” her voice dropped an octave, “a jedi and . . . a pilot?”

Kistra’s lips curved slightly while she gazed at Poe.

“Not here to cause trouble, are you?" she asked. "Kyte inhabitants choose this place to avoid the problems of the big city.”

Poe smiled and winked at her. “Rest assured, our trouble is reserved for the metropolis.”

She grinned. “Alright. Well, I suppose you will be needing somewhere to reside while the wind warning is in effect.”

Kistra turned to her alcove and flicked at a strip in the counter. A translucent panel appeared. She scrolled through some info.

“Hmm, well, I don’t have much available. I assume you two want to stay together?”

She turned her head and cocked a brow. A faint knowing smile touched her lips. Rey finally cleared her throat.

“Erm, yes, that’s preferable,” she replied.

“Mm, 'kay. So unfortunately, the larger transient rooms are fully occupied. They tend to fill up before the squalls. All I have is a double occupant hutch up on level 8. State-of-the-art, though. Our hutches each have their own freshers, they’re completely sensory isolated and can be set to any circadian cycle. We have charging banks for the droids to stay in on the same level but for an extra ten credits, you can rent a locker for them. Kind of like their own hutch.”

Kistra leaned down and held out a hand to D-0. “You wouldn’t mind that, would you, little one? You used to take refuge in shadowy corners. I promise, no light at all in our lockers. You will sleep well.”

D-0 rolled forwards and back in hesitation before leaning into her open palm. Rey frowned down at D-0. She sensed he had been mistreated but had never been able to penetrate the little droid’s defences. This woman had learned more about him in seconds that she had learned in months. BB8 rushed forward and began to chirp anxiously. Kistra laughed and returned to her feet.

“Ah, sorry, no offence meant,” she bopped BB8 gently on his head, “I know you take good care of him.”

She smiled at Poe and Rey. “Do you want the hutch?”

“We’ll take it,” Poe replied.

“And the locker,” Rey added.

“Excellent,” Kistra replied, “I’ll get someone to make it up for you. Why don’t you all swing by the canteen while you’re waiting? I’ll come find you when your hutch is ready.”

* * *

Rey grimaced as she assessed the “state-of-the-art” hutch they had rented.

“Well, this is neat,” Poe grumbled over her shoulder.

Her face flushed with heat. It was little more than a storage compartment made into a bunk. She stepped further along the cramped front landing. It was maybe two yards in length across to what she assumed was the fresher door. She was not even sure she could sit up in the double-occupant bed situated in the middle of the cube without hitting her head against the ceiling. There were formed cabinets above and below the bed for storage.

“Good thing we got that locker for the droids,” she joked nervously.

However, Rey found herself anxious to spend time alone with Poe in such confined quarters without their miniature chaperones.

“Mm hmm,” Poe muttered, “hey, can I get by you here? I need to use the facilities.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” Rey flattened herself against the wall opposite the bed as he squeezed by.

Trying not to brush up against him was a wasted effort. Poe had to step between her feet. Rey found herself reluctantly admiring him from the span of mere inches. How did his skin look so smooth and supple after the day they’d had, she wondered? Why were his eyebrows such bloody, winged perfection? She hated how much she liked his eyebrows; really, really hated-

Her stomach flipped when he cupped her elbows. Their eyes locked. She could see herself reflected in the depths of his orbs. A muscle flecked in his jaw. They did a bit of a shuffle and turn, like an awkward dance. She let out her breath again when his thick lashes dropped, and he disappeared into the fresher.

Her attention returned to the bed. She rubbed her wrists as she ruminated about its claustrophobic construction. She wrinkled her nose.

“No good can come of this,” she whispered.


	6. Chapter the Sixth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two wrongs do make a right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for SMUT.

Rey fidgeted in the fresher. She glanced from her anxious face in the mirror towards the door. She knew she had to emerge eventually but that meant facing Poe. Would he be on the bed, she asked herself? Of course, he would be on the bed, she thought frantically, where else would he be? She peered at herself again. She had taken out her buns, why had she done that? Her freshly cleansed and dried hair looked tousled and naughty, like kriffin’ hijinks hair.

She debated whether she should don more that her undershirt and short pants but agonized that she might look like a lunatic if she emerged fully dressed. Finally, she gritted her teeth and stepped out of the fresher.

Poe laid with his bare back to her on the bed. She stood there stunned for a moment as she took in his broad, muscled shoulders. Her eyes followed the white scarring across them and down his back. She finally inhaled when she saw he was wearing bottoms. Then she realized he was lying a little too still. She turned an ear and heard heavy, drawn out breaths.

He had fallen asleep!

Her entire frame slumped. He must have passed out while she had been waffling in the fresher. She experienced a mixed pang of relief followed by bitter disappointment.

Cautiously, she padded to the free side of the bed. She watched him a moment. His curls practically begged her to touch them. The soft, warm light of the hutch made them glint with bronze. She sighed, slipped onto the thin mattress, and then tapped the nearby control panel to dim the lights.

There was no respite from her thoughts. She laid in place on her side wide awake. It was night, but a full day had not yet passed and even though the trek had been exhausting, there was no way she could sleep when a half-naked Poe occupied her bed. She was not aware that she’d stopped blinking until her eyes stung. With a suppressed groan, she rubbed them and rolled onto her back.

It was then she noticed the hutch had gone silent as the vacuum of space. Poe no longer snored. She held her breath and listened intently.

“Mmmnnnf,” Poe’s huffed, “why aren’t you sleeping?”

Rey’s insides flushed.

“Can’t,” she breathed.

“Yeah, I got that,” he murmured, “I had hoped fake-sleeping would put you more at ease.”

She flipped over to glare at him. “Fake-sleeping?! What the- why?”

He was so close, she could see the fine pores on his nose. His lips set in a line for a second. His nostrils flared as his eyes roved over her face.

“Because I didn’t want to witness your emergence from the fresher,” he growled.

His eyes flicked down to where her shirt separated from her pants. He frowned. Deep creases formed in his forehead and around his lips.

“Why aren’t you dressed? I mean, why aren’t you wearing more clothes?” his eyes enlarged. “Like, a-all the clothes?”

Rey pointed a shaky finger at him and twirled it. “Me? ME? Why aren’t YOU wearing a shirt?”

“You’ve already seen everything.”

Her brows shot up. He scrunched his nose.

“Mostly everything,” he corrected and flopped on his back.

He threw an arm over his eyes and sighed. His foot started bouncing. Force energy ballooned between them. His breaths transformed from huffing to erratic.

“This . . . why is it like this with you?” he wheezed. “Do you know how many wom- . . . never mind.”

Rey chewed her lip. She desperately tried to snuff the flare between them, but it grew until she too was bouncing her foot.

“Okay, okay,” he was up on his side again, “what . . . what if I just . . . touch you? Not in like, an expectant kind of way? Would that satisfy this thing?”

Rey knew she must look horrified by how her lips twisted and her eyes burned. He might get some sort of relief from making contact, but she was not confident she wouldn’t just liquefy into a horny mass of primordial swamp goo.

“Wh-Where do you want to touch me?” she asked.

He half shrugged as if he had not thought about that yet. His hand reached out and kind of hovered. He flexed his fingers.

“You know the moment right when you’re sitting in the cockpit, just before you grab the yoke?" he asked with a tremor in his voice. "My palm and fingers have been itching to hold you.”

She swallowed and gaped at his hand as it began to descend. Their eyes met just as its overly warm weight fell on the side of her waist. Poe sucked in a breath through his teeth. His expression tensed and then relaxed as he slid his hand around her waist and under her shirt. Rey sighed at the friction of his slightly calloused palm rubbing over her flesh. His hand came to a rest fully under her shirt with his thumb hooked under her lowest rib as the rest of his fingers pressed into her back. The air she held in her chest prickled. She chewed the inside of her lip. She arched a little when his grasp tightened.

It was possibly the most erotic thing that she had ever experienced. The surface of his hand felt like it melded with her skin. The connection she had tried to suppress pulsed. A ripple coursed her frame and with it, her internal bulwarks cracked apart. Their force bond mushroomed larger and she experienced the rush of his blood in his veins as if it were her own. Her insides quivered with excitement.

“Huh, mmph,” Poe grunted and pulled her closer to him.

With a quick jerk, she was strewn on top of his solid chest and his free hand, hot as jet exhaust, splayed against the small of her back. His fingers spread and ended up half buried under her shorts and shirt at the same time. His pinkie just grazed the top of her arse. Tingles washed from her head to her toes. Their bellies stuck together where her shirt separated from her bottoms. She knew he had not meant to make his touch sexual, but she had been stuck in the potent vortex of their sexual connection since she had first been sucked into awareness of him on that level. The need to feel him engulfed her like the ignition of rocket fuel. In an instant, her clothing abraded like sandpaper on her skin. She wanted it gone! Poe let out a string of cuss words.

“Why did I think this would help?” he groaned into her throat. “This isn’t helping.”

Rey nodded but her hands crept around his neck and into his hair. It was pure bliss feeling the decadently silky strands of his hair sliding between her knuckles and against the webs at the base of her fingers. She inhaled his scent with a sigh. He smelled faintly of the citrus soap from the fresher and some unfamiliar fauna. Every molecule in her body wanted to dissolve into a solution with Poe as its base.

“Ffft- Rey-” his pinkie slipped across the seam of her bum.

She gulped back the saliva that had built up in her mouth, tilted her head and stretched her neck to better feel his plush lips move against her flesh. Involuntarily, she ground against him. His burgeoning erection strained through his bottoms and made itself known along her lower tummy.

“I feel . . . possessed, Rey, like I picked up one of those Prierian worms that burrow into people’s brains,” he murmured, his mouth tantalizingly close to tasting her skin, “I want you but I can’t . . . give in . . . to this.”

Rey sighed in frustration. She felt equally frustrated by the intoxication she felt in his presence.

“Arg, are you going to blame me again?” she whispered on his temple. “I’m not creating this connection-”

“I know,” he rushed out, “I realized it today when I saw the dark side and after when . . . you kissed me.”

“I’m sor-”

“Kiss me again,” he begged, his voice low and gravelly.

His plea reversal gave her whiplash. She lifted her head to ascertain if she heard what she thought she heard. His face was tense, a little wary, but then his gaze flicked to her lips. She dove down and clumsily kissed him. His body shuddered beneath hers in relief. He moaned into her mouth; his tongue plunged inside. As soon as she felt the velvet friction of it stroke hers, she rubbed herself against him again. She bunched his curls in her hands and devoured him with increasing fervour. He met each greedy sweep of her lips eagerly, shifting his hips in tune with hers until they were in full dry copulation.

Rey’s mind cluttered with images and the distant sounds of lovemaking. Something unfurled in the pit of her belly and she felt a wave of heat through her sex. Whether they continued what they were doing right then, or at some future junction, she knew with sudden prescient clarity she was going to lose her virginity to Poe Dameron. Her entire body quivered like she had been shocked.

In a heartbeat, Poe rolled them over and Rey found herself beneath him. His chest heaved as he tried to regain his breath. She trembled in anticipation at the look in his eyes.

“We’re going to do this, aren’t we?” his voice was rough, the angles of his face shadowed.

“I-It doesn’t have to be now.”

His chin dipped. “But it’s going to happen.”

She nodded. His eyes fluttered in surrender but then darkened with lust.

“Then why not now?”

Her mind spun. Her entire life, every memory she had made and every daydream she had entertained, collapsed down in on her from the ether. In a flash, she was just Rey, and the only space she inhabited was her body. Poe too seemed a singular entity, an infinitely condensed confluence gathering like a reflection.

Her heartbeat stumbled. There was no future junction. It was already happening.

“Kriff, we are doing this,” she murmured.

She raised her arms above her head as he tugged her shirt up. The ends of it grazed her taut nipples. He propped himself up on one hand, the other lifted her up as he dipped his head and kissed her chest between her breasts. His curls tickled her flesh.

“Yeah, we are,” he muttered. “I mean, damned if we do, damned if we don’t.”

Her fingers dug into his shoulders as his lips left a moist trail across the top of her breast. His lips blazed a path towards her nipple. She squirmed beneath him. He paused just a tortuous second, then his mouth, wet and hot, closed over her beaded flesh.

“Oh-” she made an incoherent sound; a flash of blinding light blistered her eyes.

“Mmm, stay with me,” he mumbled.

She trembled at the feel of his tongue exploring her nipple, rolling it around and flicking it teasingly. Every once in a while, he made a sound and tremored somewhat. His control seemed as tenuous as her own.

“Poe!”

His lips dragged down under the curve of her breast, allowing her a modicum of relief from the coil he had wound in her tummy. However, just as she took a breath, he drew her other nipple into his mouth. Over and over, currents ran through her sex. It clenched and loosened, then keened with emptiness. Poe, for his part, sounded winded when he lifted his head. Still, he laid her back down and pulled at her shorts. She lifted her hips eagerly and wriggled as he disposed of them. He followed by kicking off his bottoms.

Just like that, they were naked, and Poe eased his hips between her thighs. She felt the hard press of his erection into her lower abdomen. She couldn’t control her breathing. Breaths vibrated from her chest, rattling as they left. Her thoughts swirled around her head like they were caught in a centrifuge. She kept seeing the same things flash before her eyes.

Poe. Poe. Poe . . . he was going to be inside her. His cock twitched. She ruminated about its size. It seemed large. Large. Large. Large . . . too large? Wait, how could she know that, she wondered? It wasn’t like she’d done this before. Yet, her brain was stressed and performing mental calculations about what she could feel. It wasn’t going to fit-

“Rey,” Poe murmured, “breathe, sweetheart.”

“M-uh, huh,” her voice trembled.

His hand ran along the outside of her thigh before rounding over her hip. He lifted his weight slightly and his hand moved over her pelvic bone. Try as she might, she still could not catch her breath. She just outright stopped trying then, panting frantically instead. That’s when his fingers finally parted her lips. She bucked and cried out. His cock jumped against her belly. Up and down his fingers moved until they were slick and slippery. He tensed his index at one point, then seemed to home in on the point driving Rey mad. Her legs fell open. Her arms wrapped around his neck.

“Poe, please,” she pleaded with him.

“You sure, sweetheart?” he asked gruffly. “We can’t undo this-”

“Yes!”

Poe’s hand moved to his own flesh and next thing she knew; he rubbed the blunt end of his shaft through her folds. It was smooth and hard and intrusive. Anxious darts coursed through her insides. As his helmet pressed, pressure caused her to pull her knees back and widen her legs. She clutched at his shoulders. The insistent intruder pushed forward, spreading, and pushing at her flesh until she felt a breach. She experienced a sting, like a sharp stab and then his cock was filling her up like a swiftly burrowing root. She gasped as his hips bumped into hers and she was thoroughly filled. The weight of him made her groin strain and her lower back twinge. Her walls clenched around his unfamiliar occupation. Visceral awareness seized her mind.

Poe was inside her and moaning her name. Poe. Was. Inside. Her. She clenched again. He was so thick and hard. It was a strange sensation, like he didn’t fit, nor belonged, but . . . she was blessedly relieved at the stretch. She rocked her hips to better feel him and that spurred action.

“Ooooh!”

Poe cycled his hips and began to thrust. Her empty ache turned into an absolute throb. She had no idea how to process any of it. The sensations were overwhelming. Each stroke and return rubbed against that same bundle of nerves he had found earlier with his fingers. As she huffed and focused on that point, his pace quickened, and she felt like he was trying to light her up like kindling. Soon, a knot formed in her belly. She became so tense, her apex so stimulated, she thought she might combust.

“Unh, Rey,” Poe mumbled, “I can feel you . . . close.”

“Uh, huh . . . ah!”

The friction became unbearable and she found herself unravelling. She tilted her hips, took him deep and came apart as the length of him stoked her into oblivion.

“Unh,” she cried.

Poe grunted. At the same moment her orgasm tipped over and sloshed through her body, he implanted himself and his frame strained. Even as her sex was gripped with little spasms, she felt his shaft undulate and pulse along its length. He moaned and his battered breaths scraped in her ears. They held one another until the mutual obliteration subsided. Rey lost count of the little snaps she felt ricochet through his body afterwards.

As earth shattering as it had been, what shook Rey to her core was feeling him soften inside her and realize how entangled they had become. She and Poe had just . . . he had put his . . . it was still there . . . and everything was really . . . wet. His member jumped with an aftershock. Her face began to burn. As she blinked, looked around, and took stock of her humming body, she realized that she had not been in the throes of some unseen influence.

Because there was not anything compelling her to remain in his arms. Her ravenous libido was inexplicably satisfied. She bit the inside of her lip.

 _“Oh, crap,”_ she admitted to herself, _“that wasn’t our force connection. I just have it really bad for Poe.”_

* * *

Poe twirled Rey’s long locks between his fingers. He kissed her neck. She sighed and her arms tightened around his midsection. He shifted and felt himself swell a little inside her warmth. His treacherous body needed little excuse to become excited again and repeat what it had just done. He eased out of her and pulled her to him as he rolled them to a more comfortable spooning position.

With a deep inhalation, he tried to steady his nerves and duck his thoughts, but the truth sneaked up on him in the quiet of the hutch.

 _“You’re out of excuses, bud,”_ he heard his own conscience mocking him.

He could have stopped at any time, In the end, when he had finally joined with her, it had been just them. Just their needs and wants and no other compulsion, except maybe one nagging inconvenience.

He had feelings for Rey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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> Hey, thanks all for reading. I would love some support! Recommend me to your reading pals or on tumblr! Definitely more to . . . haha, I won't finish that sentence but you get the idea :D Smooches


	7. Chapter the Seventh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Misunderstandings and bad communication abound.

Poe hurried down another corridor in the labyrinth of the Kyte settlement as he tracked Rey. Somehow, she had managed to slip away before he awoke on who knows what kind of errand. The sun had risen again but the winds on Dandor had not yet died down. They would have to remain for at least one more light-dark cycle before they could resume their hike but Poe would not put it past Rey to forge ahead without him. He ran a hand over his face as he peered down another spur. He could still feel her presence, so he knew he was going in the right direction, but she was doing her best to throw him off. Blood pounded in his ears. It had been deeply unsettling to reach for her but find the bed next to him empty. Her absence had sent him into a bit of a panic, and his anxiety had only increased when he discovered that she had taken D-O from the charging locker but had left BB8.

_“Wheeeeeee, whoooooop, whoo who-o,”_ there was a shaky warble in BB8's rapid-fire queries.

“She hasn’t gone yet, buddy,” Poe said, uncertainty in his timber, “she’s still here.”

BB8 sputtered another frantic question. Poe rubbed his lips together and felt his skin heat. He glanced at BB8 but averted his eyes again quickly.

“No, we didn’t fight. We got along . . . _fine_ last night.”

Poe winced at his own choice of words. The little droid stopped rolling and then twirled in place. He was practically vibrating when he squawked again. Poe shook his head.

“No! No disagreements. I swear-”

BB8 was not buying it, he kept probing. Poe growled and jammed his hands through his hair. He tugged the ends of it and waved his hands emphatically.

“Nothing is different. I don’t look different! You’re imagining things.”

Poe resumed his pace, then started jogging to escape BB8’s questions and the absolute dread that had hollowed out his stomach. He swore at himself with every step. Did Rey hate him, he wondered? Was she remorseful, or worse, did she feel degraded somehow? The thought made his stomach lurch. They had rushed right into things without barely a pause for breath, and he was older and more experienced . . . well, he should have had more self-control, he berated himself. Especially when he had known she had never been intimate with someone. She deserved better than a hasty coupling in a rented hutch for her first time.

Poe reached out again, she was becoming harder and harder to sense. He was about to be sick when he spotted Rey across the expanse of an indoor market. His heart hammered in his chest and a rush of relief washed through his abdomen. He slipped through the crowd, past stalls and dangly things, around creatures hawking strange wares and even stranger eats. Careful to avoid her peripheral vision, he approached her like she might evaporate before his eyes. She spoke with a short, rotund alien that looked somewhat like a squashed version of his Nana.

“Sorry, Miss,” the old woman said in a hushed manner, “what I have won’t work with your physiology. I don’t think you can get that here at Kyte. Your best bet is Dandor city.”

Rey muttered something indiscernible. Poe watched her shoulders jerk and he knew she sensed him. She spun around. His heart stopped in his chest. She had dressed in haste, he surmised, because her attire was a little lopsided and her hair was still loose around her shoulders. Yet, she was achingly beautiful. She shifted in place and flicked her gaze up at him anxiously. Her face was a bit pink and her eyes larger than usual. His knees almost gave out. His tongue thickened in his mouth.

“Y-You left,” he blubbered.

Rey’s eyes flicked down, and she reddened. “I needed something.”

The old matriarch whistled and retreated a little too casually into her stall.

Poe lowered his tone. “I could have come with you. Helped you find whatever you’re looking for . . . what is it? I can ask around-”

“No!” Rey stepped closer and patted his chest as she peered around anxiously. “It’s fine. I’m good, okay?”

Poe’s breath caught at the light touch of her fingers. His hand reached up and he instinctively covered hers with his own. Worry lines creased across her forehead but she did not pull away.

“Are you sure?” he asked huskily.

She nodded with a swift dip of her head and he knew not to press further. Reluctantly, he dropped his hand.

“F-F-Found transport!”

Poe frowned at looked down at D-O. “What was that, little guy?”

“F-F-Found transport to Dandor City.”

Rey winced and coughed. “Can we get out of here? This market is a bit stifling.”

Poe followed as she brushed by him and headed away from the hub bub. She darted between people and around stalls so efficiently, he fell behind. He had to sprint to catch up with her in a quieter corridor. The droids rolled behind rapidly exchanging information.

“Hey!” Poe called. “What is D-O talking about?”

Poe’s stomach heaved. She didn’t need to answer his question, he had his suspicions. Rey had left the hutch with everything she had brought. He could only imagine she planned to leave BB8 and him behind in Kyte.

“Rey? Rey!”

Finally, she spun in the overly bright, sterile corridor and lifted her chin with determination. Again, his stomach roiled. He had this irrational possessive feeling when he gazed at her, like, somehow, she had become his . . . but at the same time, he was completely at her mercy. The idea of parting ways made him want to vomit. A familiar tightness compressed his chest. He felt himself spiralling and unable to control his emotions.

“So, were you planning to leave a message at the front kiosk or what? Or was I supposed to put two and two together after you disappeared?” Poe growled under his breath.

They were alone, but still in a relatively public setting. Rey’s lips turned down for a second.

“I just made an enquiry, okay? I-I hadn’t decided anything yet-”

So, she had thought to venture off on her own. Poe could not have felt worse if she’d thrust her lightsaber through his stomach.

“Maz tasked me with this quest too,” he said with a tremor, his distress bubbling, “not just you. I made her a p-promise.”

He did not elaborate but his promise went beyond the mere recovery of artifacts. He had promised Maz that he would protect the young Jedi with his life. He had reiterated that vow to himself the previous evening. Rey looked away; her face flushed.

“I thought we were past this,” he whispered, his voice was on the verge of cracking.

Once again, Rey’s head came up and she squared her shoulders. “I don’t know what to say, okay? What do you want me to say? This grand adventure isn’t going how I imagined.”

Poe rubbed a hand back and forth over his collar. He was not holding his breath, but his lungs burned, and the valves of his heart sputtered like they were leaking blood. The pesky organ lurched between each beat with as much fortitude as a piece of squashed fruit. He was beginning to get annoyed with himself. Where was the devil-may-care Poe Dameron? When had he become so damned . . . _soft_?

“Do we need to talk about . . . what happened between us? I feel like we need to talk about it.”

Rey’s eyes widened and she shook her head. “We don’t. We really don’t!”

She straightened and turned like she had suddenly decided something and stiffly resumed walking. He strode by her side, easily keeping pace, but he kept swallowing against a mass in his throat.

For, Poe Dameron had no guidebook for this situation. To start, he had never been with a virgin before. His first encounter had been at aged 17 with resistance pilot 10 years his senior and since that time, he had pretty much hooked up with women around his own age with varying degrees of previous experience. That was the thing about being a rebel, no one really had any moralistic qualms about jumping in and out of beds. One never knew which day would be their last, the future was always nebulous, so why not enjoy the moments as they came?

He had had plenty of opportunities to shag younger women, of course. He had a reputation, earned or unearned, that seemed to appeal to the more impressionable ones. He had avoided getting involved with a person who hadn’t live the same history, though. There were some battles and traumas that left collectives scars that they just couldn’t comprehend. Not to mention, it felt opportunistic to sleep with someone who was attracted to an idea rather than the actual man. He’d always worried too, worried that they’d want something from him he was incapable of reciprocating.

He studied Rey’s profile. There he was, trying to figure everything out after the fact and unfortunately, after he’d tossed all his ethos. Maybe she didn’t have any qualms about sleeping with him. Maybe he had been just a means to an end, and she’d go on to someone more deserving. Poe inhaled a lung full of pissed-off.

The thought of Rey with anyone else made him want to jump in his x-wing and blow something out of the sky.

* * *

Rey worried her eyes were so large, they might tumble from her sockets as she led the way. Poe’s feelings radiated off him in waves; he was angry, conflicted, but above all, confused.

That was her mostly fault, of course, but she hadn’t known what else to do when she’d awoken next to him. He was wretchedly handsome, even in his sleep - all brunette, drawn brows and a serious scowl. She imagined him waking up and declaring they had made a mistake, which was dead-arsed true, but that didn’t mean she wanted to hear him say it. Poe Dameron was known for his casual approach to relationships, which she had to admit was all speculation and rumour because she had never personally seen him with anyone. Still, she didn't want him to think she expected anything from him.

So, she tip-toed out. At first she had wandered the levels of Kyte, but every time she passed her reflection, she saw this flushed woman with too-pink lips and faint marks on her neck from the abrasion of facial hair and the hunger of an eager mouth. If she stared at her reflection too long, her smile would turn serpentine, eyes go black and a ghostly fog would start to coalesce into a tall figure just over her shoulders. The darkness of Dandor seemed to revel in her conflict, stoking her fears by teasing her with the spectre of Ben Solo. If she thought sleeping with Poe was a bad idea just on its own, Dandor was apparently determined to add fuel to her bonfire of doubts. Rey knew that the longer they stayed on the planet, the less likely she would remain herself.

However, maybe it wasn't just the dark forces in that place at work. Despite the fact that she hadn’t taken any vows and she was the first to declare she wasn’t a Jedi, perhaps Ben's manifestation was the universe's way of telling her she'd disrupted the order of things by asking for too much. Jedi weren’t supposed to form attachments. They were supposed to be selfless. If they had something to lose, well, that was the very definition of selfishness and the surest path to the dark side. Even as she glanced over her shoulder, her footfalls seemed to leave shadows that would linger after she stepped away. Soon, she wouldn't even be able to look in any shiny surfaces without immediately seeing her dark alter ego. To protect Poe from herself and the planetary influence that sought to turn her, the simplest thing to do was to get what they’d come for and leave. Rey had learned about a shuttle leaving Kyte that afternoon for Dandor City and her choice was clear. If Poe decided to follow, by the time he made his way to the larger city, she might already have obtained what they sought.

She sighed. There was little doubt they were all going to the bigger city then.

“Where are we going?” Poe finally asked, his words clipped.

“Transportation hub,” she replied softly. “We can take a shuttle to Dandor City in about a half-hour.”

“Oh, WE can, can WE?” he grumbled. “You gonna let me tag along now?”

Rey stopped and waved her hand at him. “Fine. You do NOT want to go to Dandor City. In fact, you WANT to stay here and wait for me.”

She stared him down and tried to use her will to change his mind but, unsurprisingly, it didn’t work. He frowned and squinted. 

“What? What are you doing? You’re doing the thing? You’re trying to do the thing . . . on me? Really? Wow.”

Rey huffed. “You should be flattered. Just trying to protect you.”

He nodded with an exaggerated bob of his head. “Hmm, yeah. I feel all warm and fuzzy inside, you have no idea, but like, isn’t the safest place to be by your side, oh powerful one?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Probably not! I’m likely to injure you with my tenuous force control.”

Poe encroached into her space; his eyes constricted. Rey’s breath hitched at the heat glinting in his eyes. 

“I don’t know about that . . . you didn’t hurt me last night.”

By the way her face flamed, Rey knew she must have turned three shades of crimson. Still, she could not help glancing at his mouth. She desperately wanted to be close to him again, despite her trepidation. Poe’s expression softened and she nearly melted. He cleared his throat.

“Rey,” he said roughly, “sweetheart, I-”

“W-We have to go!” she sputtered. “We have to secure our seats on that transport.”

Poe’s face twisted with confusion again for a second before he retreated into himself. His expression went blank.

“Right,” he muttered. “Yeah, right. Time to move on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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> Please don't be shy, I would love a comment or two! I'm a glutton for any and all love and fast to make friends. I have a few followers for this story now and I'm pretty excited to be writing for people who appreciate this pairing.


	8. Chapter the Eighth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Poe continue to make a hash of things. The adventure moves to the big city.

Rey stopped abruptly when one of the four arms of a Besalisk male swung down on the way into their transport. A massive hand with fingers as wide as her forearm opened. She raised a brow and glanced at Poe. He tucked his lips in and shrugged. There were about a half dozen travelers who had boarded the ship ahead of them but no one else had been stopped yet.

“Is there a problem, sir?” she asked curtly.

The Besalisk’s sack jiggled beneath his chin as he leaned down. He squinted at them and cocked his head to one side while he inspected the droids. D-O rolled back.

“N-No, thank-you,” the little droid spouted.

“Droids ride below,” he pointed with one of his spare arms at a ramp to their left that led to the belly of the ship.

Poe frowned and crossed his arms. “Your ship is practically empty. They won’t get in anyone’s way.”

The Besalisk growled. “They’re cargo. They go below or they don’t go at all. My ship. Your choice. No refunds.”

Rey drew in a breath and puffed her chest. “Oh, I think you can let them ride in the passenger compartment.”

The Besalisk wagged his brow at her and then started chuckling. It rumbled from deep beneath his massive belly.

“You’ll find those kind of mind tricks don’t work on the likes of me, Missy, but good try. I actually felt that tickle the edges of my noggin’.”

Warmth flooded her cheeks. She glanced at Poe, slightly mortified. He held back a smile.

“It’s a twenty-minute flight or a four-hour hike,” the Besalisk commented, “and you won’t be able to make that journey by foot for days. Now, you coming or going? I gotta get this rig moving before the intake ports ice up.”

Rey glanced helplessly at Poe. He stepped forward and smiled tightly.

“They’ll be fine.”

BB8 chattered a few angry bleeps before the Besalisk threatened to boot him from the ramp. With a squeal and a final invective hurled at the Captain, he whirred down the ramp with D-0 hot on his trail.

“D-D-Don’t like this,” D-0 could be heard on the way down. “D-D-Don’t like this at all.”

The Besalisk Captain jabbed a finger towards a corridor. “All the way to the back with you, Jedi. You bought the third-class experience.”

Rey felt her ire rise but Poe cupped her elbow and urged her along.

“I mean, you did try your mind-control thingy on him,” he said under his breath. “Let’s be thankful we’re not riding in the cargo hold too.”

Rey snorted. “This is an old G32 grocery freighter. It’s all cargo hold and he’s just a massive . . . ass!”

Poe laughed. “Down, girl.”

They made their way through the dim corridors and their flickering lights. Rey peeked through various hatch windows. The first-class compartment was little more than old refrigerated bay converted to a cheaply furnished lounge. A family of Squibs cavorted within. Even if Rey felt like ignoring the Captain, she did not think she had the fortitude to endure the Squibs penchant for rubbing up against people to get to know them. When she and Poe passed by the second-class compartment, she saw the woman who had greeted them when they first stepped into Kyte. She looked up from under her lavender hood as if she sensed Rey. A smile played across her lips and her eyes sparkled. Poe either did not see or did not care who was in there. Rey had a feeling Kistra would be a little too eager to share second class compartment with him. The only other passenger in second class was a Mandalorian stretched out on a bench. Neither were appealing companions, even for such a short trip.

Rey rubbed her lips together and pressed on. At last, she and Poe found their “seats”.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Poe muttered when he opened door to the third-class compartment. “I think our hutch was bigger.”

Rey’s face warmed but otherwise, she reserved her reaction. She examined the cramped space. There was no seating, just hand straps hanging from either side of the narrow compartment. The walls and floors were otherwise bare. Poe slung his bag from his shoulder and dropped it to the floor.

“Oh, look,” he quipped, “we have a view.”

Rey poked her lips to one side as she gazed at the far side of the room. A port window about the width of her hand was their only view to the outside world. She let her bag slide to the floor as well. The ship vibrated through its hull as it prepared to take flight.

“It’s a short trip, at least,” she said with a sigh.

She grabbed a strap in the middle of the compartment along one side. Poe crossed his arms and leaned back against the opposite wall. The ship lifted off with a reluctant shake and they were on their way.

“Welcome aboard, esteemed guests,” the Captain’s voice crackled over the ship’s comm, “due to the extreme wind shear, there’s likely to be turbulence throughout most of the trip. Make sure you got a good hold on something. Stay outta the freshers unless necessary. Next stop, Dandor City!”

Rey tightened her grip as the ship jostled but lost her footing and slammed against the wall. Upon seeing her struggle, Poe pushed himself up and traversed the short distance. However, he was thrown forward mid-way. He managed to catch himself with his hand but still half-pinned Rey to the wall. He waved his other hand up and grasped the strap she held. She stared up at him as their fingers intertwined.

“Sorry,” he murmured, “you okay?”

The ship bumped again, and he tucked her against him. Rey nodded and grasped his waist with fumbling fingers.

“Yes, thanks.”

The transport levelled out then, but Poe did not relinquish his hold. His attention fixed on Rey. Every once in a while the ship would jerk and they would be bounced into intimate contact again. Ten minutes after taking off, Poe’s lips were but a hair’s breadth from her own and their bodies were pressed together along their lengths. She kept waiting for him to kiss her, but instead, his gaze held fast.

“You . . . you are a frustrating man, Poe Dameron,” she whispered.

“Am I?” he murmured; his eyes slanted.

She glowered at his mouth. He licked his lips.

“You know you are.”

“I really don’t.”

She sighed with exasperation. “Maybe you should just not talk.”

He shrugged. “You know how to shut me up.”

Rey narrowed her gaze. He was baiting her, of course. Her stubborn, and possibly petty, side asserted itself. She leaned in but stopped just shy of kissing him. She pursed her lips to disrupt a smile at the tiny hiss of air he inhaled. She could not believe she could have this kind of effect on one of the most coveted flyboys in the fleet. The dashing and too-young-to-be-a-general Poe Dameron. Turbulence pitched the ship and their lips feathered, but she retreated to maintain the infinitesimally close gap. A kind of stand-off ensued but eventually, Poe laboured to breathe. His chest rose and fell jauntily. She congratulated herself on her little victory. That is, until he made like he was going to kiss her, and she instinctively followed his lips. His hand tightened on her waist while his other hand squeezed her fingers in the strap. His eyes crinkled at their corners and she realized he was playing her game. Rey huffed air out of her nose.

_“Oh, fiiiine,”_ her internal voice admonished him, _“we will see who blinks first!”_

She released the strap and let her fingers slide down his forearm, over his bicep (which tensed under her hand) and then around the back of his neck. She allowed herself to be bounced against him again.

“Dear me,” she cooed, “sorry about that.”

“I bet,” Poe’s tone dipped into the lowest octaves.

Rey played with the hair at the back of his head. His face remained stoic, but his eyes were fixed on hers with pupils so large, she could drown in them. A shiver of anxiousness gripped her nerves. As always, she was in over her head with him. The ship groaned and shuddered along its length again as it hit another patch of turbulence. Their mouths seemed to open at the same time. Rey honestly did not know who kissed whom, but their lips finally came together. It was not a devouring like she expected. Poe’s mouth first just touched hers, then he increased his pressure slowly like he had all the time in the world. Rey trembled in reaction to the restraint of his caress. This experience was so different from the other times they kissed, almost like it was their first time. His lips broke momentarily, and he assessed her with rounded eyes. Her fingers curled at his nape. He whispered something as he gravitated towards her again, his voice sweet and tinged with yearning. She made a mental note to figure out what language he spoke. She desperately wanted to know what he was saying.

He tilted his head as he came in and kissed her again with a little more insistence. Rushes washed through her tummy. A gentle shift of his lips over hers caused her legs to turn to jelly. She buckled. Poe caught her to his chest.

“You okay?” he murmured.

She nodded and her face flushed with heat. “I-It’s just hard to keep my balance on this ship.”

“S’okay . . . I got you.”

“I-I know.”

His arm tightened around her waist. “Do you?”

Poe asked a loaded question. He wanted to know if she trusted him. Her hand slid to his jaw. A hint of stubble scratched her palm and his jaw flexed under her thumb. Her head bobbed in acknowledgement. She did trust him. At least in so far as she knew he was an honourable man. When he got over whatever this fleeting attraction for her was and regained his senses, she knew he would always do what he thought was right. If push came to shove, he would sacrifice himself on that principle.

Rey could not let that happen.

* * *

Poe followed Rey down the ramp from the freighter, still confused about what was going on between them or where they stood. He sighed as he took in her slight form. The ever-present gust picked up her long hair and tossed it around. He smiled despite himself when she grunted and peeled hair from her lips. That small struggle made him ache in a void in his chest. He wished their circumstances were different, less complicated. He wanted . . . simplicity. He frowned. He needed to get a grip on himself. Rey had him thinking of far too much of the simple things in life, things he had pushed from his mind in the quest for adventure.

Thankfully, BB8 and D-0 rolled between the pair like excited children and saved him from his alarming direction of thought. BB8 let out a long “ooo” when he tilted his head up at Dandor City.

“I hear ya, buddy,” Poe muttered under his breath.

The city was an endless collection of towering, white vee-shaped structures. It made Kyte look like a tiny commune. Wind turbines sat atop spires that rose hundreds of feet above the city into the harsher slipstreams, but there had to be thousands of them in contrast to the smaller village. His forehead bunched; he did not recall much chatter about this city in his years as a pilot. Yet, it was a massive settlement and relatively new given the clean, modern lines of the architecture and the overall gleam of the place.

The Besalisk Captain’s heavy hand came down on his shoulder at the bottom of the ramp. Rey continued, unaware of the interjection.

“Be careful here,” the Captain said gruffly, “it may look all shiny and new, but there are stains underneath, if you get my drift.”

Poe raised his brows at the Besalisk. “One of your four hearts getting a little soft? You worried about us, Captain?”

The Besalisk’s lips undulated on his face.

“Nah, I’m worried about my livelihood,” he gestured with his large skull towards Rey, “your companion there worries me. She walks on the edge of a knife. This planet has existed on that edge for an eternity. Someone like her could tip the balance and I don’t mean towards the light.”

Poe frowned. “She’s not like that.”

The Captain harrumphed. “Mm, hmm. None of them are . . . until they are. Word of advice, avoid the ‘faithful’."

“That what?”

“You’ll know ‘em when you see ‘em. I don’t have time to explain nor the inclination to waste any more breath on the subject. Off with ya, now.”

Poe shook his head and hurried after Rey and the droids. She turned abruptly as he approached.

“I am going to go inquire after a few things,” she declared, “how about you find us a speeder to rent, hmm?”

He cocked his head to one side. “Oh, yeah?”

She rolled her eyes. “Look, General, I’ll take BB8, you can take D-0 if you’re so worried I’m going to disappear.”

He let out a long stream of air. At some point, he was going to just trust her to keep her word, which was galling because he knew she was going to do no such thing. Still, he had to hope she would keep him around for a bit longer.

“Meet back here in half hour?”

Rey nodded. “Of course.”

* * *

“You look lost.”

Rey pressed her lips together and half-turned. Kistra had the kind of voice one did not easily forget. She loomed taller than Rey under her shimmery, light purple cloak. The ends of her long, pale tresses twirled out of her hood in the calmed winds of the city.

“I’m not lost, I know where I am,” Rey replied.

“I misspoke then,” she said with a soft laugh, “you are in need of direction.”

Just as Rey was about to answer in the negative, BB8 chose to interject. He rapidly fired off an unfiltered repetition of exactly what she had asked him to find. She groaned internally.

“A dispensary?” Kistra repeated, her eyes flicked back to Rey, “for you or your . . . companion? Wherever he is-” she seemed to come to some sort of conclusion “-well, I suppose his absence says it all.”

“I really am fine,” Rey said with a tight smile, “what I need is just down this way.”

Kistra shook her head. “I would not advise that particular establishment. Look, Miss Jedi, I am here on my monthly errands. I know this city well. I can take you to the kind of place you seek.”

Rey reserved her response for a moment. She did not entirely trust Kistra, but she also did not sense any agenda beyond wanting to help a fellow traveler. She glanced down the roadway she had meant to follow. Wasting time was not a luxury she could afford. Every extra minute on Dandor was one minute too many.

“Thank-you. I would appreciate your help.”

Kistra smiled. “You are welcome to it.”


	9. Chapter the Ninth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danger stalks Rey. Angst and uncertainty ensues.

Kistra took Rey to a dispensary that was farther from the transport hub than she expected. Time drew out and a clock ticked in her mind, it's seconds falling like hammer blows. She had agreed to meet back up with Poe in a half-hour’s time, but she had already burned through twenty minutes. She felt her chest compress with every extra step. She kept glancing over her shoulder. If she and BB8 were a bit tardy, she was confident he would wait. Still, her mind spun in circles. One minute, she was calm and collected, the next, her skin would flush and her heart race. BB8 was unfazed by the journey. He rolled along happily, his head twirling incessantly as he took in all the sights.

What if Poe departed in frustration, though, Rey asked herself frantically? What if he went on without them because he thought she abandoned him? Her eyes darted uncontrollably. She could not read signs as she passed without the words jerking and then spinning drunkenly and resetting. She could swear she was having the nightmare where she kept getting delayed and never made it to her destination. Poe’s force presence twinkled like one of the impossibly distant stars she used to gaze at from Jakku. He seemed so far away.

Yet, they reached their destination at long last. Kistra turned down a lane and rapped on rather non-descript panel. When it slid open, they stepped inside a sterile, overly bright warehouse that appeared hastily thrown together. Its wire shelves were haphazardly stacked with unopened boxes and tacked with hand-scribbled notes pinned on top of one another with conflicting prices and confusing descriptions. Rey steeled her features so as not to give away her dismay and followed Kistra to a counter. BB8 bounced along behind them.

“Ah, Kistra, I see you have brought a new friend,” a young Andulorian female greeted them.

“Hello, Gea. Yes, she’s new to the planet. Where is your father?”

The blue-skinned girl flicked her navy fronds back and blinked large, limpid blue eyes at them. “He’s been feeling a bit low. You know how it is, the doldrums and all. Can I help you all with anything?”

Kistra glanced back over her shoulder as she meandered away. She inspected tags as she went. “I’m alright but the young Jedi is looking for something specific, I believe.”

Rey peered nervously after her guide and then turned to Gea when she thought Kistra was out of earshot. She glanced down at BB8. She would have to have a talk with him later about some confidentiality. Her cheeks flooded with heat.

“D-Do you have . . . um, disrupters. For, one’s . . . ahem, cycle?” she asked the girl.

Gea blinked slowly, she seemed a bit disappointed by the inquiry. She reached back with her stubby blue fingers and yanked open a metal cabinet with a screech. She squinted at Rey.

“What are you? Like, human? Yeah, you got fleshy look. Okay, I think these are what you’re after-” she slapped a little baggie in Rey’s hands, “they ain’t standard label, if you know what I mean, but my Pops gets these from a reputable source.”

Rey grimaced down at the little bag of green pills. Truth be told, she would not be able to recognize approved contraceptives anyway. She had only ever read about them while swiping through info-terminals in medic stations. She gulped back her nervousness and scrunched her nose. Some adult she had turned out to be, she admonished herself. Rey could not tell how old Gea might be. She looked like she could be a teenager. Should she really trust this girl?

“Erm, so, like how long . . . ah, how soon does one have to ingest these?” she asked, feeling asinine.

Gea leaned over the counter. She rapped it three times and snorted a laugh when Rey shook her head in confusion.

“Oh, dang, do you not know-? Oh, okay, babe, you need to take these like, at most, three days after the act. Otherwise, they don’t do anything, and you’d need the next level shite. You want that stuff?”

Rey’s skin prickled as blood left her face. It really hit her then, the situation she had put herself in.

“No, these should be g-good.”

Gea thought of something and her smile died. Purple spines raised over her bare scalp and fins flared around her throat like an aggressive reptile defending its territory. Her eyes sparkled with challenge.

“Hey, sweetie, you okay?” she asked,her voice suddenly throaty with an underlying hiss. “Did someone do something you didn’t want?”

BB8 clanged alarmingly. _“What happened? What happened?”_

Rey’s eyes widened. She waved her hands quickly and shushed the little droid. Gea looked ready to tear over the counter and rip open someone’s throat. She almost had a Sith look about her for a moment as dark force energy poured from her form.

“No, no, no, i-it was just unplanned-” Rey peeked down at BB8 “-don’t you worry about it.”

When she looked up again, Gea’s fins flapped and laid down again and her spines retracted. She grinned and just like that, she was about as threatening as a Porg. Her head tilted and her eyes sparkled like she had figured something out.

“The best things always are,” she murmured as she reached into the cabinet again, “but if you don’t want your spontaneity hampered by unexpected responsibilities, you should probably make use of these.”

She slipped a small box in Rey’s other hand and then tapped the picture of a translucent strip on the top.

“These go on clear and absorb into your skin over time. Once you no longer notice it, you put on another. You need a spectrum shot? I can give you one of those too. Makes you invincible, you won’t even catch junk rot from a Fillisher-“

Rey thought she might collapse like a singularity from embarrassment. “Th-Thanks, I’ll just take these two.”

Gea shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

She had been inoculated for everything under every known sun by resistance medics. Full vaccination was standard procedure during the rebellion. She had no doubt Poe had been similarly protected as well. She paid for her purchases and mumbled a thanks to Gea for her assistance. Kistra had wandered completely out of sight by then so Rey followed her force signature trail. She and BB8 found her several rows over perusing jars of fluorescent fungi.

“Thank-you for your recommendation and bringing me here.”

Kistra gazed through a large jar filled with glowing pink and orange mushrooms. The curved glass twisted her smile.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” she asked as she replaced the jar on the shelf.

“Yes.”

“And more, I imagine.”

Rey nodded. For some reason, she thought about the Besalisk captain, Gea and of course, Kistra. Her guide's flowing dress and cloak appeared to swish in slow motion as she walked. Her steps made no sound, however.

“Is everyone on Dandor force sensitive?” Rey asked out of the blue.

Kistra picked up another jar. Her eye warped and bulged through the glass as she inspected it.

“No,” she responded with a wistful smile, “and yet, Dandor does not let you come here otherwise.”

She nodded at her find and tucked the jar filled with yellow ruffle-like growths into her basket.

“But no one here is like you or has your abilities, Miss Jedi,” Kistra said softly, “there’s scant among us with little more than a keen sense of things. Beings gravitate to this place because they are much like Dandor itself, remnants of the great epiphany. Not you, though, you're new stock. You have a higher purpose.”

Rey swallowed back an uncomfortable sensation in her throat. There was something troubling her about Kistra’s comportment. There was a tinge of zeal in her voice that reminded her of a Sith’s fervent religiosity. The hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She cleared her throat. Twice in the span of minutes she'd had the feeling about two different creatures. She needed to leave that place.

“Mm, well, again, thank-you for your help-”

“Eager to return to your pilot?” Kistra’s eye narrowed.

“Um, yes-”

“He tempers you,” her tone was flat.

Rey feigned a lighthearted laugh. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Kistra’s brows twitched. “Your pilot is a different kind of remnant. He doesn’t belong here.”

Rey hiked her bag on her shoulder. “Neither do I.”

“But you could.”

BB8 emitted an electronic womp as he reminded Rey about the time. She patted him on the head, thankful for the interruption. 

“Yes, BB8, we’re leaving,” she smiled tightly at Kistra, “um, yeah, I gotta go. Thanks again.”

“Can you find your way back to your other half, Miss Jedi?”

Rey felt a crease form between her eyes. Her other half? The way Kistra asked the question made her skin crawl. Ben Solo flared in her mind. 

“I-I can find my way back to my friend just fine, ma’am.”

With a final dip of her head, Rey fled back to the street. The sun had already slung low in the sky. She sucked in a breath, released it as a sigh and picked up her pace. BB8 rolled impatiently around her and tore down the street. She began to jog to keep pace. Every time they passed a lane, the winds blasted between the towering branches of the buildings and clawed at her hair. She felt increasingly like she had lingered too long at the dispensary. Her interaction with Kistra had been unnerving. Despite her initial impression, Kistra had not behaved benevolently. She had, in fact, tried to influence her thoughts. Rey was not entirely certain what she attempted to achieve or whether her intentions were malicious, though. The unfortunate downside of being a Jedi (or Jedi adjacent as she had come to think of herself) was the tendency to attract those who thought they might gain through an association.

“ _Speaking of which-”_

Rey’s head snapped towards a side street. That voice. It was unmistakable.

“B-Ben?”

For a moment she thought she saw him in the shadows. Her mind spun and then clanged with alarm. It was not just a vision; she sensed his presence. In a heartbeat, the walls of the surrounding buildings felt as if they were falling inwards. Darkness swamped her like a burst dam. She felt the presence of several other beings stalking her from the shadows. Fear crackled through her like an electric jolt.

_“So alone . . .”_

“Y-You’re not real!” she cried. “You’re just a figment of my imagination!”

_“Do you still believe that?”_

Rey’s stomach hollowed out. She felt like if she swallowed something it might just keep falling right past her feet and through the planet. His voice reverberated in her ears, almost as real as when they used to converse across the galaxy. 

_“They’re coming for you.”_

Her head snapped up. Danger loomed. Self-preservation kicked in. She just managed to flick on her lightsaber as a blaster discharged from an enclave.

“Arg!” She blocked the blast with one side of her sabre.

Rey threw her hand out as someone exploded from a lane. She caught them with a projection of the force and grunted as she sent them flying.

“Go, BB8! Go!” she cried.

The droid shrieked and rapidly accelerated. Rey’s feet pounded after him as heavy boots beat the ground at her back. She counted three, four, maybe five beings? She ran faster, fleeing from them as much as Ben’s ghost. Dread and panic gripped her like a crush of a black hole as she felt the twinkle of Poe’s energy far off in the distance. She had left him alone on this cursed donut from hell. What was she thinking, she asked herself? She expanded her senses until she was practically cleaving through the fabric of space and time.

“Poe,” she whispered.

Her feet slapped the ground for several minutes in his direction. His energy pulsed like a beacon in a buoy. The pursuers seemed to lag. She began to pull up but suddenly, a flare of heat whizzed by her temple. Her hair sizzled at its ends and she smelled the pungent scent of burnt locks. They must have taken a shortcut to fire off such a close-ranged blast. Her heart hammered in her chest. She was not going to outrun them. With a growl, she stopped and spun. She powered up both sides of her lightsaber and prepared for battle. She just managed to suck in a half-breath before she was surrounded by several different cloaked creatures. They were different species and ages, a disparate mix, but they all shared that faint force sensitivity that she had sensed in most of the planet’s inhabitants.

“Why are you trying to kill me?” she shouted.

A rather high-pitched feminine tone laughed. “We’re not trying to kill you, Jedi, we’re just trying to tire you out.”

The blasters around her erupted, though, and Rey had to flip and twirl her sabre to deflect the onslaught. She directed a couple of the shots back at her attackers, knocking them on their behinds. During the ensuing confusion, she closed her fist and crushed the weapons in their grasps. In the distance, she heard her named called. There was a reverberation and overlapping, and she realized she was being summoned in different directions. Ben's voice seemed to howl with the winds. Poe's chimed like a distant bell. Still, his voice rang clearer than the other.

“Rey!”

Poe’s call was definitely more visceral. As he approached from the other end of the street, her fear transformed to rage as she envisioned him being shot or worse. The ground rumbled beneath her feet; dark force energy rippled under the paving stones as it rolled like a wave in her direction. She let it fill her up and with a guttural cry, energy exploded out from her in a shockwave. Bones fractured and veins split in her attackers. In the span of a hyperjump, they were rendered unconscious and there was a deafening silence.

Around her, walls split, and a crack-like fissure opened in the street. She heard a whining noise before a pipe burst nearby and she stood in a shower. Whatever her vision of Ben had been, whether he was real or imagined, he was gone along with any danger she had been in.

“Arg!” she wiped water from her face.

BB8 squealed from half a block away. He complained loudly about the surge she had created while crying for his master. She sprinted after him, just catching up as he found Poe and D-0. Her eyes welled with tears when she saw Poe jumping out of an old side-by-side speeder unharmed, if not a bit bewildered. However, when he gazed at Rey, his features steeled with a faint frown. He strode to her with determination and an instant later, she was wrapped in his arms.

“What happened, sweetheart?” he asked through her hair, he squeezed her tightly.

“I was . . . hunted,” she whispered shakily, “they wanted to capture me. I don’t know why but it’s . . . something they believe they need to do.”

Poe leaned back and scowled. “Are you sure it wasn’t just thieves?”

She shook her head. “No, they knew what I was. They wanted me. I don’t know why, though.”

She didn’t tell him about Ben. How could she? She wasn't sure if her mind deteriorated or if he was really back. Either way, it wasn't good.

He swore. “Okay, yeah, we had better leave. Come on.”

* * *

“This way, please.”

Rey, Poe and the droids followed a young man through a busy eatery. He gestured towards an enclave. A small table resided inside a walled off booth. He tugged at a light curtain to show them it could be drawn across the entry to shelter them from curious eyes.

“Private enough for you, sir?”

Poe nodded. “Yes, thank-you.”

“You are welcome, sir,” he pointed across the table to the far wall, “there is a fresher just beyond that aperture for your convenience. You can enter your order into the panel when you’re ready. Food usually takes about twenty minutes or so. Need anything else?”

Poe slipped a bill into the young man’s hand. “No one needs to know we’re here, hmm?”

"Wait!" Rey waved at him and concentrated. She was determined to make her force influence work on someone on that dreadful torroid. "Absolutely no one needs to know we are here."

Their server's face went slack for a moment. "No one needs to know you are here."

The young man disappeared. Rey smiled smugly and glanced at Poe. He snorted.

"Now he's going to wonder why he has an extra five credits in his pocket."

Rey's smile waned to pursed lips as she followed Poe. He slipped into the booth. She meant to sit opposite from him, but BB8 and D-0 hopped into the bench and she was forced to rise and slip in next to Poe. She chewed her lip as the two droids stared expectantly at them across the table

“You don’t even eat,” she admonished them.

They looked at one another quizzically and then BB8 produced his port key. D-0 did the same.

“Ch-Charging,” D-0 jangled, “we use ch-ch-charging ports.”

“Uh-huh,” Poe said with a scoff.

He pulled off his scarf and tapped at the panel on the table. “Hungry?”

Rey nodded. “Yeah, a little.”

“Ooh,” Poe exclaimed and rubbed his hands together, “Ooh, there’s Yavinian food on this menu. Yeah, I’m getting some Pepian. Oh, hell, yes.”

She leaned over and scanned the menu. “Yavin 4 is your home world, isn’t it? What do you recommend?”

Poe grinned. “You like heat? Spice? Seafood?”

Rey held her breath a moment. Between Jakku and the trenches of the Resistance, she had not eaten anything too exciting in her blip of an existence. She was suddenly embarrassed at her lack of worldliness.

“Food is food,” she said with an anxious shrug, “I’m good with anything.”

Poe’s head tilted a bit and his eyes slanted. He leaned in. His gaze flicked up and down.

“Mm, but there’s a difference between food and an experience,” he murmured, “satiation versus pleasure.”

Her face heated. “Trust me, my expectations are so low in that regard that I am impossible to disappoint.”

His chin raised and light glinted from the surface of his eye. The little flash preceded a tug from his light. Rey’s lips parted as it pulled at her belly.

“We need to fix that,” he murmured.

“Yuh-huh,” she mumbled.

Poe reached sideways and tapped a few things into the menu panel without looking away from her face. His other hand crept under the table and curled over hers before he glanced at the fresher.

“We should, ah-” his lips twitched, and his brows raised “-make use of the facilities before food arrives.”

He moved to his feet and urged Rey to follow. The fresher panel slid open as he backed towards it. She practically floated after him, their force connection began to crackle like static. Her gaze greedily consumed the bare skin at his collar and throat where his white linen shirt parted and then travelled upwards over his lips to the intensity of his dark eyes. He was laser focused on her; his expression hungry.

BB8 chirped in confusion at their going into the fresher together. Poe glanced sideways; his face flushed.

“No, it’s fine. We’re friends,” he spoke over BB8’s rapid assertions, “it’s not weird! Just . . . hold down the fort, okay?”

His nose scrunched. She pressed her lips together. With a wry smile, he jerked her into the fresher just as she giggled. The door whipped closed behind them and the lights flittered on. One of the sconces refused to fully illuminate. It pulsed and blinked like her erratic heartbeat. Poe’s expression went serious for a moment. His eyes widened and his throat bobbed.

“I-I felt you slipping away earlier. I thought I wasn’t going to see you again.”

Rey swallowed a lump that formed upon seeing the apprehension in his eyes. “I . . . I realized I can’t do this without you.”

“Kriff,” he replied gruffly, “you slay me.”

Poe fell on her, his lips slanted over hers hotly while he gripped her tightly. She sighed and slid a hand up to where his shirt parted and over where his heart pounded. His energy surrounded and saturated her consciousness. Her other hand found the back of his neck and the silky, soft curls at his nape. She kissed him back eagerly. Delicious tension wound a knot in her tummy. Her body remembered the feel of him, pleasure of his possession, and way he filled an empty ache. Almost immediately she felt the sting of arousal infuse her sex with moisture.

“Mmph,” he said with a hiss, “Rey, sweetheart, I need you so badly.”

“You can have me,” she whispered.

A mad scramble ensued. Rey tore at the buttons of his shirt and pushed it from his shoulders while he rearranged her top. He grunted in frustration as her wrapped linens refused to cooperate. He ended up just tugging her shirt around her waist while she wriggled out of her pants. When she was satisfactorily mostly-naked, her fingers yanked at his fly. He shook his head and hoisted her bare bum up on the cool metallic ledge that ran along one side of the small room.

“I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted to raise your expectations,” he growled.

Poe dropped to her knees between her legs. Rey tensed and laid a hand on his head. Her face flamed as she looked across the fresher into a mirror and saw the reflection of the back of his dark head obscuring her sex.

“Unh!” she cried out.

His hot breath fanned her before his tongue dove into her cleft. She saw her own face in the mirror contort in shock and wonder at the intrusion of his wet tongue. Her fingers curled into his hair while his held her thighs firmly. Her hips bucked as he licked again. She was burning from mortification but could not look away from the erotic visage. Poe was on his knees, her legs quivered, and her breasts jerked every time she experienced a spasm of pleasure. Her head dropped back against the wall as she involuntarily moved her hips in reaction to his tongue’s onslaught. She stared down her own nose at their reflection, panting while her excitement grew into an ever-increasing throb. She was just about to tip over and come when she saw the muscles of his back ripple in the mirror. Suddenly, she had an almighty desire to feel his penetration again.

“P-Poe, please,” she begged, “I need you i-inside me.”

He groaned as he kissed her all the way up her tummy to her throat. One hand clutched her leg while the other fumbled with his fly. She watched his actions over his shoulder in the dim reflection. His pants loosened and slid over his arse to reveal a perfectly taut, round behind. In the next instant, they dropped to the floor around his ankles.

Poe raised his head to look at her as he seated himself against her sex. His helmet was hard and impatient at her entry. He paused. His gaze flicked over his shoulder curiously. He looked back at her with scorching heat.

“Oh, you like that view, do you?” his voice rumbled.

Rey nodded; liquid hot blood flushed her face once more.

“Keep watching.”

He urged her to wrap her legs around his waist and he pushed inside her body. Her breath caught when she beheld the flex of his bum and felt him thrust deep inside. His steely invasion pinned her to the fresher wall. She anchored herself on his wide shoulders and marvelled at the way his body flexed with each stroke of his cock. She could not get enough of the details and the way his heels lifted, calves dimpled, the long line of muscle strained in his thighs, his glutes contracted, and his shoulder blades jutted with each stroke. It was surreal to watch their coupling unfold while his girth stretched and claimed her body again and again. Her breaths began to shudder from her body when the rawness of his rippled flesh sliding against hers monopolized her thoughts. It was like she could map every measure of him, every blip and vein. The lights in the fresher flickered and she was not sure if it she caused them to flash. She closed her eyes momentarily as the sensations built. When she opened them. she gasped. For a split second, it wasn't Poe pinioning her to the wall, but Ben Solo. She squeezed her eyes shut and tensed, but her body was too lost to the friction and she began moaning. She had already been close to completion and needed little more stimulation to send her spiralling. Thankfully, when she opened her eyes again, she blessedly only saw Poe.

“Rey,” he panted, “sweetheart, y-you there yet?”

“Uh-huh,” she blubbered, “y-yeah.”

His hips slammed into the valley of her thighs a bit faster, spreading them until she felt a pull in her groin and her back was flattened to the wall. She shook all over and her vision blurred. She beheld one last contraction of his bum when she came with a guttural cry. Poe swore and buried his shaft. He cried out as well and spent himself. His cock jerked inside her body and she felt the little darts along his length it discharged. Over and over he released until their joining was slick with his ejaculate.

Poe kissed her even as he raked in breaths. Sweat rolled down between them and over her belly. Her legs began to slide from his waist.

“Hu-uh,” he sighed on her mouth. “That was . . . so . . . g-good.”

He let his shaft sluff from her body. Some of the fluids from their joining slicked her thigh. Poe’s lips brushed over hers again as he lowered her to the floor. More fluid spilled down the inside of her leg. His cock pressed semi-hard against her stomach. She rubbed her lips together apprehensively.

“You okay?” Poe whispered raggedly.

She shifted on her feet. Wetness trickled a little farther. She must have made an expression because Poe frowned.

“Rey?”

“I’m okay. I’m good . . . I j-just need to clean up.”

His brow furrowed. "I didn't hurt you or anything?

She swallowed a thick mass. She couldn't tell him what happened. She just couldn't.

"No," she kissed and hugged him quickly, "you could never hurt me."


	10. Chapter the Tenth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey learns something about Poe and herself. Plot happens.

Poe scooped his spoon through the last of his stew, licked it clean and collapsed back against the seats of the booth.

“Mmm, even lukewarm that was delicious,” he mumbled.

Heat crept up through Rey’s cheeks. “Sorry if I distracted you from your food earlier.”

She tucked in her lips. What was she doing, she asked herself? She did not know how to flirt! He looked up at her through a relaxed, lidded assessment. His lips tweaked and he smiled. Light danced from his eyes.

“I wasn’t complaining,” he murmured, “my appetizer was hot.”

Her lips parted in shock just before her face burst into flames. Her hand flew to her mouth.

“Kriff,” she almost choked on a gasp, “you’re . . . a bad man, Poe Dameron.”

He chuckled and blinked lazily. She swallowed as he flicked his tongue along his upper teeth.

“So I’ve been told. You know, I’m still feeling a bit . . . hungry,” he tilted his head sideways to ogle the fresher and then arched a brow when he glanced back her way, “how about you? Interested in some dessert?”

Her belly quivered at the seductive timber of his voice and the way his gaze seared her soul. He had a way of consuming her with a glance. She wanted to disappear into the fresher with him again, but they’d had unprotected sex twice already.

“Something wrong?” Poe asked, a frown appeared between his brows.

She gritted her teeth a moment. They hadn’t discussed birth control and even though she wanted to avoid the awkwardness of such a conversation, she knew it was past due that they broach the subject. She was also more than a little bit curious why he had never brought it up himself.

“Poe,” she began with a stammer, “I-I would like nothing more than to . . . go in there with you, but I feel like it’s a bit reckless.”

He nodded, but still had a confused wrinkle to his brow. Then, a light dawned from somewhere within.

“Oof, oh, crap. Rey . . . are you worried about birth control?”

She nodded. “I’m not on anything. I’m so sorry, I should have told you-”

He expelled a whoosh of air. “Oh, lord, sweetheart, don’t be sorry. I’m such a monumental asshole for not clearing this up earlier-”

She glanced down. “It’s okay.”

He shook his head and scooted closer. His face paled.

“No, it’s not. I have thoroughly cocked this up . . . twice now,” his voice strained.

“It’s fine,” she cut him off, “it’s fine. I have it under control.”

He grimaced. “I am sure you do. Look, Rey, I’m sorry you had to deal with the anxiety of worrying about potentially . . . becoming pregnant. I didn’t think to talk about it because it’s been so long, but the thing is . . .”

A shadow crossed his face. Pain billowed off him like the winds along a shore stripping sand from its beaches.

“I can’t . . . impregnate anyone,” he whispered. “I was in an accident when I was young in an old model x-wing with a Yridium drive. The kind of radiation those things gives off when they explode injures a person in ways you can’t always see and yeah, well, that’s exactly what happened. It fucking detonated when we crashed. Of course, it also sprayed liquilite everywhere that caught on fire. That’s why I have scars on my back.”

Rey’s eyes widened. Scenes from the event flashed through her mind as if a window to his past had been flung open. She saw the crash and the fire that scorched his back. He had lost more than his fertility, though, there was something else that had been ripped from him. His despair hit her like a shock wave. That glimmer of pain she had seen the night she rescued him blared like a search light from his soul. Rey instinctively grabbed his wrist. She was swamped by a flood of visions. Past, present, and future images vied for her attention. They came so fast and furious; it was almost like being electrically shocked. Poe swore and wrenched his arm away. He scrambled to his feet and jammed his hands through his hair.

His eyes were feral with fear and confusion when he returned his gaze. “Wh . . . Why did you show me that? Why would you do that?”

Rey shook her head and choked back a sob at the way his voice cracked. “Wh-What? What did you see-”

He turned partially away and dry heaved. In sickening and sudden clarity, his foolhardy behaviour, fearlessness and so much more about Poe Dameron made brutal sense. Instinctively, she chased after him as he retreated into his memories. He swore again.

“For the love of-” he waved his hand in a circle around his crown with quivering fingers “-this is off limits. S-Stay out of my head.”

Rey tenuously held her tears in check. What had he seen? Were they the same things she had seen? She was terrified to prod any further.

“I can’t always control it,” her voice trembled. “I am so, so sorry, Poe.”

He looked at her, still in shock. He held his hands up. His eyes brimmed with moisture and he appeared pained, as if she had played a cruel joke on him. Her own stomach pitched with nauseous guilt. Finally, the wild fear glimmering in his eyes receded. After searching her a spell, his features softened, and he shuddered a sigh.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Rey,” he said gruffly. “I-I overreacted. You were right about this planet . . . there’s something not right and it . . . it preys on a person. We need to find Mas’ stuff and get the hell out of here.”

His attention sharpened as their young waiter returned.

“And I think I have an idea on how to do that.”

* * *

Rey followed Poe as they made their way to the kitchens of the restaurant. She longed to hold him and hum the ache in his soul away. The memory of the event that left him in such a state was a trigger. Even though she sensed he had long made peace with his infertility, a lot of terrible shite and trauma had been wrapped up in that instant in time and he suffered for it. She desperately wanted to alleviate some of his burden. She couldn't though, not if he didn't want her help.

Her thoughts side-stepped to the birth control she had purchased as she watched his shoulders flex beneath his jacket. It was hard to reconcile that such a healthy, vital person could harbour such injuries. She did not know what to think about his revelation. Most disconcerting was an unexpected feeling of loss for the possibility of ever sharing a child with him. The feeling left her bewildered, and mournful, which she had no right to be. She had sworn off having children to end to the Palpatine line and because, even if she did not think of herself as a Jedi knight, she agreed with their tenet of avoiding personal attachments. Of course, that had been an easy decision to live with while no one inspired any reproductive inclinations.

Her eyes rounded to the point she thought they might pop out and bounce off the floor. Her inner self scuttled back like a startled crab.

_“Kriff-”_

Wanting babies with Poe could only mean one thing.

_“The belonging you seek is not behind you – it is ahead.”_

Her heart skipped several beats upon recalling Mas’ words in her head. She found herself trembling as she assessed him again. All she had ever wanted was to belong to someone and have them belong to her in return. A kind of whistle emitted from her throat, like a breathy whine. Poe must have heard her because he glanced over his shoulder.

“You okay?”

She nodded. How had the man grown suddenly and inexplicably shimmery like a Kyber crystal, she wondered? She could not tear her eyes away. Soft light glinted from his curls and slashing brows. His lips reflected a dewy sheen. When he squinted slightly and lifted a corner of his mouth, his eye teeth winked like stars.

“I-I’m fine . . . ow-”

They stopped so quickly, one of the droids rolled into her calf.

“A-A-Apologies, mu-um,” D-0 sputtered.

Rey’s attention shot downwards as her entrancement was broken. “Wh-What?”

“A-A-Apologies, ma’am.”

She peered at him for a tick then shook her head. She wrestled her thoughts into a dark room in her mind and slammed the door. When she glanced up once more, Poe had a confused twist to his brow. She rubbed the back of her leg with her foot anxiously. She would be mortified if Poe sensed her veneration.

“We there, then?” she asked with a feeble laugh.

He scrutinized her with a faint scowl but then nodded. She let out a sigh of relief when they continued through a heavy, beaded curtain. Inside the restaurant’s kitchen, they were introduced to a stout man in an apron. He and Poe exchanged a few words. They must be speaking a dialect of Yavin 4, she finally decided. 

“Rey, this is Gor Mejia. He’s originally from my home world but has been a resident of Dandor for many years.”

Rey nodded slowly. The light side of the force hummed around the man, a welcome change from all the darkness they’d encountered. Poe’s brows twitched. His expression seemed to ask, _“he’s good, right?”_ She dipped her head in agreement.

“Sith artifacts are plentiful here,” Gor said with a sigh, “but what you seek is unusual, very few trade in such powerful items. In fact, only one really comes to mind.”

The man paused and rubbed the back of his neck like he had a crick.

“Dangerous?” Poe prompted.

“That depends,” Gor replied gruffly while scratching the shadow on his chin, “Ispep Qu’Ulfi is a cultist but primarily, an opportunistic businessman. Dangle enough credits and he tends to falter in his convictions. Best be sure you offer better compensation than what you yourself might fetch, though. He ain’t above collecting bounties or trading in sentients.”

Gor turned an eye to Rey. “I especially advise you avoid haggling with him, Jedi. You’re exactly the sort he might try to turn a profit on.”

Rey felt the prickling of a frost infiltrate her aura. Her neck stiffened. Static crackled in her ears.

“He would regret that,” she hissed.

“Whoa, sweetheart,” Poe stepped between them and whispered in her ear, “it’s alright. Come back to the light.”

She snapped her focus to him and felt darkness empty from her like he had unplugged a drain. She gulped in a breath. 

“I’m so sorry-”

“It’s fine,” he murmured as his hand brushed hers.

For a moment, she thought their fingers might intertwine but a charge jumped between them and Poe inhaled sharply. He jerked his hand away. His throat bobbed. His small rejection felt like a vise clamping around her heart. Her lungs ached. 

His gaze flitted away and he turned back to Gor quickly. “Where can we find this guy?”

“The outskirts. Temple district. He has his own pulpit called K’Qu’Lir. His is the one with the inverted green star on the signage. Get there quick or make plans to wait. We’re approaching the long night. Dandor will be dark for nearly 27 hours as the Hu comet swings around and that’s when the faithful come out in force.”

Rey sucked in a breath. “Wh-Who are the faithful?”

Gor’s weathered nose wrinkled. “Zealots.”

“Sith?” she whispered.

He shook his head. “Nah, not Sith. They’re light worshippers, but . . . it’s hard to describe, their beliefs are so rigid and exclusory that they have almost become their own kind of evil.”

A lot of things clicked then, namely, why the Sith artifacts might have been brought to Dandor in the first place. Rey felt a chill climb her spine.

“They seek out the dark, though. I’ve felt it. Do they think themselves immune?” she asked with a rasp.

Gor folded his arms and leaned back against a counter. “What would you believe, Jedi, were you utterly convinced of your own righteousness?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a point to all the hell I'm putting our characters through, I swear!!! Also, to reassure you, I always write happy endings. Eventually . . . [cue Palpatine-like laugh].


	11. Chapter the Eleventh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More moving the plot along. Is it just me or is Poe starting to feel a bit possessive of our girl? Heheheheh. Poor guy, he's confused at all these new feelings.

Rey pressed her lips together as Poe struggled with the speeder’s glass canopy. Every time he jerked it, the rickety old side-by-side creaked and its engines sputtered. He swore. She felt his gaze settle on her. When she looked up, he sighed. Warm light from the rising sun backlit his curls for a moment and she found herself somewhat breathless. Then just as suddenly, the sky darkened when an ominous cloud blotted out its light.

“This was the only one that fit us all within our budget,” he complained.

“I didn’t say anything,” she bit back a grin.

BB8 whistled some encouragement from the rear bench.

“You like everything!” Poe scoffed.

Rey heard a few splats before something stung her cheek. She touched it gingerly and glanced at Poe with chagrin. He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Great, now it’s raining.”

“Sideways,” Rey added, “delightful.”

He groaned. “I was warned about that.”

She finally patted the cracking, worn vinyl of the front bench. “Come on.”

Poe jumped into the driver’s spot. He opened his mouth to say something, but Rey pointed up at the uncooperative canopy.

“Erm, do you mind?” she asked before she flicked her fingers.

The cover slid into place over them just as the full force of the horizontal rain blasted the speeder. He rubbed his lips together.

“I keep forgetting you can do that,” he grumbled.

She shrugged her shoulders. “Wow, and here I thought I was making an impression on you.”

Poe turned in the confines of the speeder. His eyes searched her face a moment before his hands left the yoke and one of them snaked around the back of her neck. In the span of a blink, he pulled her against him, and she was being devoured. His lips were hot and hard and there was a bit of desperation in his kiss. Her fingers fanned out over his chest before she fisted his shirt and kissed him back like a starved beast. When his tongue plunged into her mouth, she mewled and dove on top of him. Seconds later, their hands were buried in one another’s clothes. Rey completely forgot where they were until she heard the faint clanging of an electronic alarm. She lifted her head and stared down at Poe.

“Oh . . . oh, crap,” she whispered.

He winced. His fingers seized on her waist. “Kriff, here come the questions.”

They disentangled and returned to their upright positions. The speeder wobbled as BB8 rocked excitedly in his seat.

D-0’s head kept waving back and forth. “What-What-What-What-?”

“Huh?” Poe shouted, he put the speeder into gear. “What? I can’t hear you, buddy. Rain’s too loud.”

Rey busied herself punching coordinates into the speeder’s retro navigation panel and smoothing back stray hairs. “Ah, sorry, BB8. Say again? I was mapping our route.”

BB8 womped and chirped in protest. Poe grunted and slammed the yoke forward.

“How far is the temple district from here,” he asked under his breath.

“Twenty minutes,” she replied in a hushed tone, her face hot, “give or take fifty questions.”

* * *

The Temple District was not at all what Rey had envisioned. In her experience, temples were ancient stone structures weathered by erosion and battle scars from numerous clashes over their storied history. They were sacred sites in which one found themselves silent in awe upon beholding their stoic beauty.

Dandor City’s temples looked more like the generic warehouses one might see in a budget shopping district. They were mostly low, squat cubes with cheap, oversized electronic signs spewing pseudo-religious truisms to lure desperate souls inside.

“Not sure if I’m being saved or sold something,” Poe muttered.

“The latter, I think,” Rey replied. “Oh, what the he- _‘May the light be with you’_? Did I honestly just read that?”

“Is that better or worse than, _‘if it ain’t light, it ain’t right’_?”

She leaned over Poe and gawped at the sign he had read. “No! What? That’s mortifying.”

As they continued towards the edge of the city, the buildings thinned, and the signs grew smaller.

“There,” Rey pointed at a faded green sign with a flickering banner, “that has to be it. It’s the only one I’ve seen with the inverted star.”

Poe pulled the speeder to a stop a short distance from the faded green and gold temple. Wind and rain assailed the speeder in waves, pushing against it in intervals as if nudging it away.

“Well, shall we?” Rey asked.

Poe stared down a moment. His knuckles were drained of colour from gripping the yoke. He inhaled a deep breath before he raised his head.

“This place makes my skin crawl,” he said flatly.

She nodded slowly, somewhat surprised that he felt something so off putting when she had not felt anything at all. She frowned and reached out to probe the force energy given off by the modest temple. Still, she sensed nothing beyond the general darkness permeating its surroundings. When she glanced back at Poe, his eyes were round with apprehension.

“Promise me you will do whatever you need to protect yourself,” his voice was low and rough.

Rey’s nose wrinkled. “I won’t do anything that will risk you becoming a casualty, General.”

“I don’t want you to worry about me, or the droids,” he said impatiently, “you’ve already had a run-in with these folks, and it didn’t go well-”

“For them!”

He peered anxiously at the back seat of the speeder at their companions, then growled and leaned into her space. He seemed to be barely resisting kissing her again. His lips were slack, but his eyes burned. She felt warmth flush through her body and up her neck.

“Don’t make me order you-”

“As if you could,” she said breathily, her voice quivered with excitement.

His eyes narrowed; another flare of heat flashed from their depths. “Try me.”

The heady moment drew out. Rey held her breath. Poe's eyes softened as he looked at her, his pupils were blown out. How old was he again, she asked herself? He seemed as green and apprehensive as herself at times.

“We’re going confuse the droids if we keep messing around like this,” she whispered.

“They’re not confused,” he replied, his brows drew together as he studied her face, “and I don’t mess around.”

Her heart thumped in her chest. A tremor vibrated her soul. She suddenly felt very unsure of him, but not because she thought him disingenuous. The initial impression she had had of him being a philandering playboy and cavalier romantic were suddenly an ill fit, like she had unfairly smeared him with specious assumptions. A shiver coursed her body. Maybe she had been the cavalier one all along. If they were not messing around, what were they doing and . . . _kriff_ , she thought frantically, was she ready for that?

Rey greedily drank in the curve of his lips. They inevitably drifted closer but just before their mouths came together, a loud rapping on the speeder canopy made them jump apart. When she looked up, a shadowy figure in a flapping cloak stood uncomfortably close to their vehicle, the hem of his cloak slapped against the speeder’s metal cladding.

Poe raised his brows warily and sighed. He cracked open the canopy.

“Can I help you, my man?”

“Praise be the light,” the fellow mumbled robotically as he stuffed a flier through gap, “it giveth half price buffet during the long night. All you can eat at the Temple of the Lucent Reborn.”

“Ah, yeah, um . . . thanks?” Poe murmured.

“Praise be the light,” the man repeated blandly and shuffled away.

“Uh, huh,” Poe scanned the flier dismissively, rolled it up and handed it back to BB8.

The little droid sucked it in through a port, then incinerated it with a fizz and a faint hiss of smoke.

“Well, are we ready?” Rey asked. “It’ll be dark again before we know it.”

Poe’s teeth set a moment. A muscle flexed in his jaw.

“Rey-”

He was still wary. She shook off a feeling of dread. They needed to get on with their mission.

“It’s okay, Poe, I can feel everything about this place. It is unremarkable, truly. I’ll be fine.”

He opened his mouth again but clapped it shut immediately. With a curse, he dug under the seat into his bag and grabbed his holster, blaster, a second compact blaster and a glinting, serrated knife. Then, after a thought, he reached in once more and pulled out a small orb.

“Here, BB, you know what to do,” he handed it to the droid.

“Wait just a minute-” Rey protested as he flung open the canopy and hopped out “-was that a mini thermal detonator? I am not going to just let BB8 carry that around-”

But her companions were already all gone and headed towards the temple. Rey growled as she stalked after them. She slammed the canopy shut with a wave of her arm, then followed the three most infuriatingly foolhardy beings in her acquaintance.

* * *

Rey shifted uncomfortably on her feet. Next to her, Poe’s force energy blazed like a white-hot ball about to go supernova. She was not sure if it was because of their host’s penchant for winking at her or that the man had hardly acknowledged Poe’s existence since they had stepped into the K’Qu’Lir Temple. Though, Rey was inclined to think the latter. Few people so blatantly disregarded the famous General. In addition to that, Ispep Qu’Ulfi was rather attractive and charming with a disposition akin to a street busker or travelling salesman, a personality trait she knew Poe didn't hold in much regard.

She wasn't bothered by his artifice. He was completely full of dung, no question, but self-aware enough that he seemed to relish the unspoken pretenses they all kept up. He was maybe a few years older than herself and an orphan from the few brief visions that she had gleaned. She could not begrudge him his insincere countenance given his background. He was just making his gifts work.

“It truly is an honor to have you here, Rey of Jakku,” his large grip clasped her hand, “a Jedi, in my temple! My faithful parishioners will be humbled when they learn of your visit.”

“Really?” Poe’s voiced grumbled with disdain. “The few I’ve seen haven’t shared your veneration.”

The minister’s eyes never left hers, but his blonde brow furrowed. “Have you had trouble on Dandor, Rey?”

Poe repeated her name derisively under his breath as if mocking the man. She jabbed him with an elbow.

“Just a misunderstanding, I’m sure,” Rey answered quickly.

“Well, I am sorry to hear that,” his voice was smooth as silk, “most of us here on Dandor worship the light. Jedis represent everything noble and pure and bright in the force. A person of true faith should fall at your feet. Forgive me for not doing so the moment you walked in, but I was not entirely sure I wasn’t dreaming when I saw you.”

Rey’s face heated. She had received her fair share of flattery before, but never in such overtly covetous tones.

“Well, I’m real,” she tried to laugh off his compliments nervously, “do not put me too high on a pedestal, though, I’m liable to disappoint.”

He squeezed her hand and she realized he had been holding it the entire time. “I cannot imagine that.”

“I bet you can’t,” Poe said dryly.

Rey flushed extra hot and pulled her hand away. “I am honored by your regard, thank-you.”

This was a game she didn't like playing but she could not fold. They had come so far.

Minister Qu’Ulfi grinned and dipped his head. His eyes sparkled mischievously. “It is the very least I can do. Unless . . . there is something else I can offer?"

She looked down for a second. The intensity of his gaze had her flustered. She didn't find him alluring, but the innuendo in his words were viscerally affective. 

"Ah, but there is," he murmured knowingly, "that is why you have come, hmm?”

She nodded. “Yes, in fact, we are looking for some items. We were told that you may . . . erm, know where to find them.”

He shrugged. His pale green eyes hooded.

“Perhaps,” he drawled, “what do you seek?”


	12. Chapter the Twelfth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our pair finds respite as their adventure continues. Poe isn't doing a good job of keeping his feelings concealed but Rey suffers from denial. When is she going to accept that she's becoming something more to Poe than just a friend? Poor girl!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note: I have totally made up some stuff about Yavin 4. The language is just me rattling off a few things, doesn't really adhere to any known Earth language or dialect. So, if I have inadvertently sworn or said something like "the sky is filled with flaming boogers" in another language, it is unintentional and purely coincidental.

Rey’s hand shook as she stared down at the small, ornate box she held. The speeder jostled when they crested over a rise. She gripped the box as it bounced in her lap, the amulet clacked within. She winced as dark energy blared like a burst of an ion canon firing inside her skull. Her ears filled with a deafening roar akin to a torrent of rain crashing against a metal roof. So much malice . . . so much ill intent. It was as if someone had poured every dark thought they had ever had into the bronze casting. The speeder bumped again, and her stomach churned. It felt like they were being carried in a current, and indeed, she was aware of a river of dark energy flowing beneath her feet that she had not felt before.

“Rey?” a distant voice called.

Rey!”

She stared down at the box. Swirls of soot began to rise from its surface. The patterns drifted closer. Every line carved into the surface sliced into her mind. Suddenly, a hand slammed down onto the box and it was tugged from her grasp.

“I’m sorry, but to hell with that thing!” Poe spit as he tossed it into the back seat.

Rey’s head lurched up with a grunt. Shadows faded back and light returned. She panted as she looked sideways at Poe. His gaze switched frantically back and forth from her face to the path outside the speeder.

“You okay, sweetheart?” he asked with a panicked edge to his voice. “To hell with that evil piece of sh-”

Rey nodded quickly. “Yes, I-I am fine.”

Her chest rose and fell with stuttered breaths.

“I want to fire that damn amulet into the sun,” he muttered. “What has Maz gotten us into?”

Rey closed her eyes and tried to steady her breaths. She pulled at every sliver of light she could find to fortify herself.

“Y-You understand though,” she whispered, “you understand why things like this cannot be allowed to fall into the wrong hands? You can feel it too, can’t you?”

Poe stretched his neck. “Mm hmm, like it is collecting every happy thought I have ever had and trying to expunge them from my memory. Is that what it’s supposed to do? Make us feel like garbage? I don’t understand its purpose.”

She stared down at the floor of the speeder and shivered. She half expected the murky energy river to bubble up through the panels and drown them.

“It’s a beacon,” she murmured.

“Kriff, for what?” he returned.

“I-I don’t know. It’s just a piece of a puzzle. Maybe it will make sense when we pick up the remaining items tomorrow.”

Poe snorted. “I don’t think that shady Minister dude actually has the staff and the mask. I think he wanted an excuse to see you again.”

Rey’s face flushed with heat. “He’s just eager to do business and credit hungry. His temple was one of the smallest-”

His lips turned down in distaste. “You got the eager and hungry part right.”

“Poe!” she protested; her face hot.

“And probably the smallest part as well,” he added grumpily, “that guy was definitely over-compensating-”

She fanned her face with her hands. “Stop!”

He glanced at her again and grimaced. He appeared apologetic, but still hot under the collar.

“Rey, um, I – oh! Damn, ah, we’ve arrived.”

When she looked out the front of the speeder, she realized they had travelled some distance from the city and into the dense surrounding forest to a compound surround by a high wall built from huge, square timbers. It looked rustic, but when they passed through the framed gateway, a blue laser scanned their vehicle and a shield blinked off temporarily to allow them through. From there, they crossed a mossy, wooden bridge over a stream and approached a collection of stone and timber dwellings. Poe pulled the speeder to a halt under a sloping, thatched port sheltering other vehicles.

“We should probably check in there,” he nodded towards the only two-story structure.

“Do you really trust this Gor Mejia fellow from the restaurant?” Rey asked. “I mean, I know he’s from your home world, but is that enough?”

Poe peered outside the canopy. He sighed.

“You’re right, I don’t know him but he’s a rebel. He knows things only those who hid in the forests and crawled through the Kin Ayee tunnels would know. He settled here and that seems odd . . . but it makes sense in a way too. There are a lot of those in the resistance who feel stained, for lack of a better word, by having fought for so long. I suspect he believes Dandor is the only place he belongs in our new universe. At least, that’s what I picked up from our conversation.”

“You sensed all that…? Oh, that reminds me-” she grabbed at her communicator on her belt “-I don’t understand a word you’re saying when you speak Yavinian and the universal translators don’t work, which is . . . weird, to say the least.”

Poe smirked. “It’s a rebel language developed over millennia, which means it’s been evolving to resist decoding and its phonetics are changing all the time. I’m not sure if I went back there today that I would be speaking the most up-to-date dialect.”

Rey huffed. “Well, that’s . . . erm, neat, I guess.”

He chuckled. “You don’t like not knowing things, do you?”

Her bottom lip crept out in a bit of a pout. “Not really, no.”

“I figured.”

The speeder was quiet for a second. The droids were still in low power mode, like napping children. Rey glanced at them and then Poe. It was like they were an odd little nuclear family.

An impulse struck Rey. “Say, um, after we’re all done here . . . could you take me to Yavin 4?”

Poe blinked, his eyes widened. He inhaled a stilted breath.

“Y-You want me to take you home? I mean, to my home?” he asked with surprise before releasing a whoosh of air and grinning. “Yeah, yeah, of course. I-I would love that.”

Her skin flushed with warmth. She hoped she had not put him on the spot, but when she peeked at him again, his grin had grown wider. She felt a flurry of excitement in her gut and a pang deep in her heart. His _home_. She wanted to see that so bad, to see him in the place where he belonged. A wave of euphoria engulfed her then, and she was beset by rush of images from Poe’s life.

Family dinners. Flying with his mother. Fixing things with his father. Playing with his friends. Stories around campfires. His life flashed forward, and she saw him in a hazy future trek through the bush. He was older. There were streaks of silver in his hair glinting under the purest, brightest rays of a sun. The warm light basked him through a canopy of lush vegetation. His eyes crinkled as he smiled at someone. She watched him reach eagerly, his fingers outstretched and wiggled insistently. For the most fleeting of moments, she regarded a tiny hand slip into his grasp.

“Should we head inside?” his voice cut through her thoughts.

She fluttered her eyes in bewilderment. He frowned.

“You experiencing dark visions again?”

She shook her head. “No, sorry, not at all. Just . . .”

She was at a loss for words.

His brow raised. “Anything I should know?”

Rey didn’t know what to make of what she had seen. Her visions were not always straightforward. None of the futures she had ever glimpsed had come to pass, most notably Ben Solo’s. If she told Poe what she saw, he would likely ask more questions than she could answer. She couldn't risk causing him pain.

So, she kept the precious vision to herself.

* * *

The Mejia family home proved a world unto itself. Crossing their threshold was like stepping into a sanctuary insulated from the dark surroundings of Dandor. It was a feeling Rey could only attribute to the occupants themselves.

They were a big, boisterous family. Their server at the restaurant had been the oldest of the eight children of Gor, the cook and owner, and his partner, Cos Mejia. They ranged from ages in their early adult years to the youngest girl being no more than six or seven. Little Friss quickly adopted the droids, especially D-0. Rey lost sight of them in the hub bub as the girl ushered them away to play, save for a glimpse of BB8 in a hat and beads.

Of course, the family demanded she and Poe join them for a meal, which they did. The spread put Gor’s earlier restaurant fare to shame. Afterwards, Rey found herself in the kitchens helping the family clean up (something both she and Poe insisted on at the very same time, much to everyone’s amusement).

“Here you go, my lovely,” Cos said as she gave Rey a cloth, “the plates go in the middle cupboard.”

Rey smiled at Cos. Rey thought about just shooing them all out of the kitchen and doing a two-second force cleanse, but she did not want the experience to end. Everyone was talking over one another and laughing. The room was filled with comfort and joy. Cos was the commander-in-chief, dressed in fine, grey silk with an ornate sash draped over her shoulder and cinched at her waist. Her height and attire made her an imposing figure, she was taller than her husband by several inches, yet her manner was gentle, and her warmth wrapped one like a blanket. She smiled as she watched Poe hand Rey another plate to dry. Rey couldn't help feeling a pang of longing. Cos reminded her so much of Leia.

“You two remind me of when Gor and I first got together,” she remarked wistfully with a faint accent. “When did you marry? Recently?”

Rey gazed with rounded eyes at Poe. His lips parted in surprise. A plate slipped from his grasp, but she force-willed it to her hand before it hit the floor.

“I-ah- we’re not married. We’re . . . friends,” Poe stammered.

Cos drew her brows together skeptically. She frowned and rattled off a few words of Yavinian to Gor. He answered with a series of shrugs. Then she directed a volley at Poe. His face flamed red and he responded in rushed stammers.

“Es dir kemes jah u’ _‘a-mia’_? ‘ _A-MIA_ ’?” Cos pressed.

Rey gaped at Poe, hoping for an explanation. He peered at her but averted his eyes swiftly.

“Psssht,” Cos clucked in disapproval. “Y’i dir es ‘ _a-mia_ , _a-mia_ ’.”

He swallowed and began nodding. He offered a few words in return that seemed to mollify Cos. She sniffed then finally smiled again. Still, she threw one last barb at Poe. He held up his hands and wagged his head up and down emphatically.

Later, as Cos led Rey through the house, her curiosity piqued.

“Cos,” she skipped to keep up with her long stride, “I was curious about what you and Poe talked about earlier-”

The older woman slowed her steps and stopped at a pocket door. She pressed a button and it slid open.

“Ah, I take it you do not speak any Yavinian,” she replied, “come in, this will be your room.”

Rey followed her into the small, simply furnished room with a double bed. Poe’s bag sat on the floor. His clothes were folded neatly on the bed.

“Your young man has gone out to the thermal springs to relax,” Cos informed her, “I assumed earlier you would want to share this room as a couple, but I may have been mistaken. Would you like your own room?”

Rey’s face heated. “Oh, no, you are too kind. This is more than generous.”

“Mm,” Cos responded, “so you are a couple of sorts, then?”

Rey felt her face grow hotter. “I -ah-”

“Are you uncertain about that, my dear?” she asked with a knowing smile. “You shouldn’t be. Do you know what ‘a-mia’ means?”

Rey shook her head.

“Yavinian words are tricky-” Cos opened a drawer and pulled out a bundle of cloth “-‘A-mia’ doesn’t mean much on its own. It could be an endearment for a friend or a pet or what have you, but the real significance is the way he refers to you with the three tones. ‘A-mia’ . . . it is a song for you. ‘A-mia’ . . . _mine._ He probably heard his father say it to his mother. That is why I thought you two were married.”

Rey’s skin warmed. “I-I’m just his friend. Y-You must be mistaken-”.”

Cos chuckled. “Is that how you think of him? As a friend?”

Rey’s tongue was tied a second. She shook her head.

“No-” she flushed hotter than an afterburner, still in denial about Poe, however “-maybe he doesn’t understand the connotation?”

The older woman snorted a laugh. She shook out the fabric she had taken from the drawer and held it out. Rey took the wrap from her hands. Cos smirked.

“Perhaps you should seek some clarification from your young man out at the springs. Go on. No one will disturb you there. You should have plenty of time to . . . _speak_.”

Cos smiled, a little too pleased with herself, then turned and strode from the room. For a few seconds, Rey stood in the small room holding the wrap. She had heard all about the springs during dinner. They were the reason the Mejias had chosen to build their home so far from the city. Apparently, the warm waters that bubbled up from a fissure had some nebulous connection to the light, though Rey had not sensed such a thing, their reverence was likely wishful thinking.

She looked over at Poe’s clothes folded neatly on the bed. Her eyes widened. Every stich of what he brought with him was there.

“That bad man!” she whispered.

She glanced at the door leading to the courtyard. Dare she join him? She was hit with a wave of anxiety. Poe had not mentioned he was going to the spring. Maybe he had gone out there to have a break from her as well. She paced in the room, closed her eyes, and reached out beyond the courtyard and retraced his journey down the rocky path between the trees. She encountered towering slabs of rock surrounding the spring that had been fractured and pushed up from an eruption long ago. They acted like a shield around the pools, creating a perfect haven from the wind as well as curious eyes. She navigated around them as he had done and peered across the foggy expanse of a large pond of steamy water. It looked as if the stones that formed the catch for the basin had been ground down and smoothed around the edges to make the spring more like a giant bath. She cast her view across to Poe’s form. He was not quite clear even though everything else she could see was in sharp relief. Instead, his presence was a smudge that pulsed and glowed along one side of the stone bowl, his signature amber and purple energy swirled about and beckoned for her to join him.

It was a pull too powerful for her to resist.

She stared at her wrap, then laid it down temporarily as she rooted through her bag. As she dug through it, the box holding the amulet fell to the floor with a clatter. It flared with darkness in protest.

"Oh, quiet down, you pesky thing," she muttered.

She pushed aside her same articles of clothing several times before she accepted that she didn't have anything to bathe in. 

Besides, Poe was out there naked.

And naked was basically their thing now.

Which meant, it was unlikely he would answer much about how he addressed her in Yavinian.

Time pressed and she felt a tightening of her chest. She stripped as fast as she could, suddenly a bit panicked that she might miss the opportunity to . . . _speak_ with him. She threw the wrap over her bare arse. Her toe tapped into the amulet box in her whirling. She glowered down at it before scooping it up and stuffing it in one of the wrap's oversized pockets. She didn't think anyone would go into their room in her absence, but there were children about and it was probably not a good idea to leave such an item unguarded to traipse off to a spa for a . . . _conversation_.


	13. Chapter the Thirteenth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We learn something about Poe and his past. Rey and Poe have that much anticipated "conversation".

Poe unclasped his chain from his neck, refastened it and palmed its metallic weight. His mother’s ring, a rare asteroid alloy, felt inexplicably heavy in his hand. He stared down at the vintage jewelry ruefully. He had found it just before he had gone to the spring when he had opened a side compartment on his bag while searching for a place to stow his soiled socks. The discovery had thrown him for a loop. He thought it was lost. He had taken it off impulsively on the anniversary of her death several years prior, and subsequently forgotten where he had stashed it. Not wanting to lose it again, he had slipped it on out of habit. The irony of the fact that it chose to reappear at that moment was not lost on him.

“The force works in mysterious ways,” he muttered.

He inhaled a deep breath and let it out again. The chilly air turned his breath to a heavy fog. He slipped deeper into the spring while holding the chain and ring above its surface. He closed his fingers.

He used to wear her ring around his neck incessantly, almost like a penance. That is, until more years of his life had passed than she had been alive, and he recognized that his life had stalled in her absence. Maybe he had “lost” the ring, maybe he had intentionally chosen to forget about it. In fact, as he gripped the small band tighter, he realized he did not want to wear it anymore, even as precious as it was to him. He was exhausted by his grief over her death. He wanted to begin a new chapter in his life.

With shaking hands, he reached over to his wrap and poured the necklace and ring into its pocket. He expunged a breath he had held in his chest as soon as it was out of his grasp. His eyes stung. His throat closed in guilt.

“I am not trying to forget you,” he whispered, “I just don’t want to hurt anymore.”

His back tingled. He closed his eyes and sunk into the warm water to his collar. His mother’s panicked voice tore through his mind.

 _“Brace, Poe, brace!”_ she cried. _“Brace, brace, brace!”_

What had started as a routine patrol had turned into a battle to survive. Something had struck the x-wing his mother piloted. No matter how many times he relived the moment, he always gasped at the recollection of the impact. Afterwards, their x-wing slammed into the top of a giant coniferous tree and they were spun violently to one side. He remembered the sickening lurch in his stomach, the way his brain impacted the inside of his skull and the chaotic vortex of images through the cockpit as they descended.

_“Brace! Bra-”_

He did not recall the impact with the ground. There had been only the sear of pain from a fire that licked across his back followed by the painful cries of his mother. Though, she cried not for herself, but for him. She had cried out his name until her last breath, desperate to know if he was okay.

But in all the flashbacks he had ever experienced, he never answered. Darkness had taken him before he was able to offer reassurance. A tear squeezed out from his tightly closed lids. He wished he had been stronger. He would give anything to return and offer her some small measure of comfort.

“Kriff!” he heaved forward and pressed his hands to his face.

He gulped a few breaths, steadied himself and worked on pushing the memories as far into himself as possible. He did not know how long he mired there, but eventually the ache receded. He reclined again, sank down and closed his eyes.

* * *

Rey padded across the warm stones as she approached spring cautiously, careful not to make a sound. Poe sat in the far end of the thermal pool with his head supported against a bolster. His eyes were closed; and he breathed with faint, white puffs of air. Her skin prickled as she observed him for a moment. Everything about him made her belly tighten. His dark curls were damp, his skin similarly moist and supple. Even relaxed, he had a hint of a scowl as if he could never fully let down his guard. Her eyes greedily consumed his lean, muscled shoulders, and chest above the surface of the water. She sighed breathily when she could not quite make out the rest of his naked form through the mirage-like circulation of the hot water. Tentatively, she dipped a toe into the water. Almost the moment it broke the surface, Poe’s eyes snapped open across the spa. Her heart stumbled over its next beat. He sat up abruptly, his eyes nearly black with intensity. He did not say a word, just watched stoically.

Rey sucked in a breath. Her stomach tumbled like a boulder out of control down a cliff. She was emboldened, suddenly obsessed with the simmering heat of his attention. She pulled at her wrap and let it fall apart. The biting air nipped at her sensitized flesh; her nipples tightened. A blast of vapors expelled from his flared nostrils. With trembling hands, she tossed the wrap over a nearby seat and met his stare. Heat flooded her face and burned all the way up to the tips of her ears.

He looked like he wanted to eat her alive.

“Something tells me you didn’t come here to relax,” he said roughly.

Rey stepped deeper into the water but paused. “Am I bothering you, Dameron?”

Half her skin prickled with goosebumps, the other half reveled in the caress of the warm water.

“Yes,” he replied as he pushed away from the edge of the pool, “always.”

Rey advanced into the spa until they met in the middle. Lazy clouds of steam wafted up around and between them. Her breasts felt uncharacteristically heavy, her nipples sensitive and tingling. Her hair brushed across her bare shoulders in an electric sweep. Between her thighs, her sex panged with anticipation. Poe stood up and slicked his own locks back. Water sluiced down his torso to the hard vee of his firm abdomen. She swore internally. He was so fit. Her eyes skimmed lower. She could just see fleeting flashes of his cock beneath the disturbed surface. When she raised her eyes, his lips twitched with a smile.

“You look at me like I’m a meal,” he murmured.

She flushed again. “I don’t mean to-”

“I like it.”

Rey grinned. Poe sighed, then groaned and wrapped an arm around her waist as they sank back into the decadently warm water. She hummed inside at the slide of his bare flesh against her equally naked skin. She wanted to drown in his glistening eyes. She could not imagine a moment she had felt more content in her life. She thought she might just burst from pure bliss. His eyes scanned her face as if he too committed the moment to memory. When they settled into the water with her half on top of him and their legs tangled, she saw the engines in his mind fire up and his eyes alight.

“Rey, Sweetheart,” his voice was rough, “I . . . I dead-arsed feel like my heart is going to stop every time I see you. I can’t breathe sometimes.”

She did not know what to say. A lump formed in her throat. His fingers spread over her chest and rested just over her heart. She felt the tips of them tremble on her flesh.

“I do that to you?” she whispered in disbelief.

He nodded. “Rey, I – I . . . I think . . . I mean . . . fuck-”

Her heart raced. Her entire being seized. She felt a strange anticipation, like she was about to learn the secrets of the universe. Then Poe blurted out a stream of something in Yavinian. She wanted to scream.

“What?” she asked anxiously. “What? I don’t understand-”

But his mouth covered hers and she could only growl. She clutched his shoulders tightly and poured herself into the kiss. She needed him to feel her frustration and her longing to _know him_ , to really know what was in his heart. She felt like, if she knew that, then she might be able to finally describe her own conflicted feelings.

“What does ‘a-mia’ mean?” she whispered against his lips.

Poe broke away momentarily. His eyes constricted in suspicion. Fire blazed in their depths.

“Something tells me you already know,” he replied huskily.

Rey disentangled from him and paddled back a bit to see his face. Poe circled around her. She followed him with her gaze, her neck craning.

“Maybe,” she murmured over her shoulder, “but maybe I want to hear you say it anyway.”

Poe approached her from behind and tugged her to him again. His cock pressed into her bum, smooth and hard. She held her breath as his fingers first flattened against her stomach, then slid lower over the rise of her pelvic bone. She pushed her rear back into him and let her head drop back as he kissed her neck. His lips and teeth dragged gently over her skin.

“Mmph, tell me,” she moaned.

“ _Mine_ ,” his voice was rough as scraping gravel in her ear as he urged her to the edge of the spa, “it means, ‘ _mine’_.”

Rey’s hands spread over the cool, smooth stone of the pool’s edge to support herself as Poe ground against her arse. She was half out of the water, water sloughed off her body and dripped to the wet stone. Her nipples contracted in the chilly air again, almost painful in their arousal. His fingers finally rubbed into her cleft and over her clit, pressing on the excited nerve with just enough pressure that it caused her sex to clench. She moaned again with eagerness and pushed herself into his groin as he circled and stroked the same spot. Her knees began to shake. He was hard, harder than she’d felt him before and something about her vulnerable position between his solid frame and the unyielding rock edge of the pool made her indescribably keen. She rubbed against him eagerly until he was stroking his thick shaft up her seam.

“Mmmnnn, unh, Rey,” he hissed, “I always feel so frenzied, I can’t hold myself back-”

“Don’t,” she sighed.

“Damn, Sweetheart, tell me what you want,” he murmured.

“T-Take me,” she said with a groan, “l-like this.”

He gathered her up a bit and kissed the top of her shoulder. His hips thrust with a jerk. His engorged flesh slipped up her crack again.

“Mmph, damn, Sweetheart,” he repeated.

He urged her to bend forward little and she perked up her bum instinctually. He swore again and muttered her name. He pushed his round head down and she felt it bump into her sex between her legs. With a tilt of his hips, he hit the right angle and she felt his girth spread her open. She leaned further over, her hand slapped onto the stone and her fingers clawed at it as her pushed deeper. She clenched onto his cock as he seated himself fully. In this position, he felt ridiculously long, like he might poke out her belly. She cried out softly as his hips bucked and plumped her backside. The hairs on his lower belly tickled her cheeks.

She felt wild, animalistic. She cried again as he withdrew and cycled back in. A hand slid down her spine and he grasped her hips. She heard his groan again and felt him vibrate with pleasure. His thrusts were slow at first, his hold loose, but he soon picked up the pace and she throbbed from the delicious friction of his possession. The sensation of him cycling between her thighs into her sex from behind was satiating in a way that make her needy and a little frantic. She steeled herself and spurred him on by meeting each stroke. Soon, he was pumping vigorously into her body. Their fevered breaths and the slap of waves generated by their joining echoed off the towering rocks around the pool.

Every sensation became erotic, the way water dripped from her nipples, the bounce of her breasts, the sting of his torso slamming into her rear as water sloshed between them. She felt the stone bite into her palms and his fingers compress eagerly at her waist.

Then he was mumbling her name and speaking in ten different languages. She felt herself tumbling and unravelling. Her sex began to pulse and clang like an alarm sounding. She swore and came, quivering so violently from the pleasure of it that Poe was caught off guard.

“Unf-!”

He jerked. Then he was coming. His hips bucked with a spasm and his cock emptied. She felt him double over her and his arms wrapped around her chest and belly. He twitched several times as his cocked spurted with its release.

“Rey, kriff….”

Moments later, she was in his arms and clinging to him, her legs around his waist as he turned and settled into a seating position along the side of the pool. He held her tightly as she straddled him, kissing her neck and rubbing her back. When she lifted her head to look at him, he kissed her desperately, still shaking from their fevered copulation.

“Rey, Sweetheart . . . _a-mia_ ,” he whispered on her lips.

“Poe,” she murmured, “y-you . . . you make me so happy. I never thought I could ever be this happy.”

He kissed her gently, his lips trembled.

“Same, Sweetheart, same,” he replied softly.

Then, she was caught in his luminous dark eyes in the fading light. His features were so tender. For several seconds, he seemed to pour over her face. His hand crept out of the spa and began to reach sideways for something. She was jostled on his lap as he strained. She sat back when he discovered what he sought. He dangled a chain with a ring between them. It glinted as he fiddled with the clasp.

Next thing she knew, she felt the cool weight of the chain and ring settle against her chest as he clasped it around her neck. She reached up instinctively and rolled it in her fingers. He let out a breath, like a sigh of relief. His eyes gleamed for a second as he gazed at her chest.

She stared at him in bewilderment. He nodded and swallowed.

“That’s my mother’s ring,” he said finally.

Rey blinked rapidly.

“Wh-What? I can’t accept this!”

He shook his head. His hand covered hers on her chest.

“Please,” he cleared his throat, “I want you to wear it. I _need_ you to wear it.”

The world stilled around them, even the vapors stalled in mid swirl. The universe felt like it took a great breath and paused. Memories from her life, good and bad, hovered in her peripheral vision like rocks she had lifted with her mind. It was as if every version of herself had been shocked into immobility.

The ring itself twinkled with force energy like it had found a home. Tears stung her eyes.

“I don’t know what to say. I . . . ” she whispered. “I . . . I will wear it . . . but it remains yours, okay?”

He nodded. His chest inflated. He held back a grin.

“Deal.”


	14. Chapter the Fourteenth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get real. Rey breaks Poe's heart a smidgen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a load of ANGST. Many of you are not going to like me, but bear with me and ride it out. The more gut-punching the feels, the better the reward. The next chapter after this one will bring some temporary relief, then I will pull the rug out from under you again following that. Get ready for a roller coaster before the final descent. Happy endings are my thing, but so also is making my readers want to smash their screens.

“I’ll see you up there?” Poe asked, he squeezed Rey’s hand.

She squeezed his fingers back. He tugged his hand and chuckled when she failed to relinquish his hand.

“Oh, I am perfectly content to hold your hand all the way back to the house,” he murmured as he stepped close and kissed the tip of her nose, “I’ll sing an entire song about what we did on the way.”

“Hush!” her face warmed. “There are kids!”

Poe snorted. “Yeah, a lot of them. How do you think that happened?”

Rey batted his arm and kissed him quickly. When she pulled back, he beamed

_“Egad, he’s beautiful,”_ she thought to herself.

She could not help drinking in his face. She adored every feature, but especially his deep brown eyes and ever-scowling brows. Every lift and tweak of his features told a story. Poe caught her to him again and kissed her a little more eagerly. Her feet lifted slightly from the ground and she felt a flutter in her tummy.

“Mm, I will drag you back in there for a third round if you keep looking at me that way, _a-mia_ ,” he mumbled on her mouth, “and a fourth and a fifth-”

“Okay, okay, go! I am right behind you . . . just give me a moment. I-”

Poe laughed and shook his head. “You don’t need to justify your modesty to me, Sweetheart. Take all the time you need.”

He released her, adjusted himself with a smirk, cinched his belt a bit and walked back a couple steps. With a grin and a wink, he turned and bounded up the path. She watched him until he was out of sight then did a frenzied little dance on the spot. Excited laughter bubbled from her lips.

Her body hummed with contentment. She closed her eyes. She could still feel his hands kneading her breasts, his mouth over her nipples and the pinion of his cock as he thrust up into her body. She groaned at the intoxicating memory. They had made love a second time in the pool. She had held handfuls of his thick curls while straddling him. It had been more intimate and the buildup more intense as their pleasure slowly culminated. She came even harder on top of him just as he had come undone between her thighs. She could still feel how his abdomen pulsated with spasms and his thick flesh emptied. The way he climaxed was her new favorite thing. Every time she felt him twitch and heard him moan, her own body could not help but respond with an aftershock.

She fiddled with the chain about her neck. Her smile grew so wide, her cheeks hurt. She jigged again on the spot.

_“Mine.”_

She suppressed a giggle. The way he had said that made her hot all over; she liked the feeling of his staking a claim because in turn, it kind of made him hers as well. After another twirl, she decided she had lingered at the spring long enough. She skipped up the path back towards the Mejia’s manor. The sun had set again, and the winds whipped up. She pulled her wrap closer about her shoulders and hurried along, eager to rejoin him. Just as she reached the top of the path, she caught a faint tang of smoke on the air. However, when she stepped onto the courtyard, she saw nothing curling up from the stack on the house.

“Ow!”

A searing heat scorched her thigh. She swatted at her side and extinguished a flare of flames that had sprung up from her wrap.

“What the-?”

The amulet box, which had somehow caught fire, clattered to the stones. The smoldering lid broke off when it bounced off a corner of the box. The bronze medallion popped out and skidded across the stones.

“Unh!”

A shockwave of dark energy blew her back off along the paving stones for several feet until she landed on her arse. She wheezed and rolled to one side once she slid to a top. She panted. Her leg throbbed from the burn of the flames. For a few seconds, she laid there stunned, until she realized something was off.

Her breaths sounded ominously harsh and echoed like a communication over a bad connection. The warm lights of the Mejia home were blurry as if someone had dropped a shroud of gauzy-black fabric around the courtyard. She scanned the area apprehensively, there was something familiar about it all, like she had been plunged into a force vision. She glanced at the amulet. It glowed a sickly grey-blue hue.

“What is this?” she whispered.

“It’s the shadows,” an eerily, deep familiar voice murmured.

Rey gasped at the sight of a large hand extended in her direction. She raised her eyes to a pale face.

“You!”

She scrambled back, terrified. Her fingers scraped along the stone. One of her nails tore painfully.

“Impossible,” she cried, “I-I watched you die.”

The specter of Ben Solo lifted his chin, retracted his hand, and planted his arms on his hips. The hairs on her neck stood up. Dread coursed through her veins. He had no irises; in fact, his eyes were completely black. His skin, always pale, was as sickly and grey as the glow of the amulet. When he inhaled and exhaled, the black fog around expanded and contracted like a giant lung.

“I didn’t die. I fell,” his tone was flat and somewhat listless, “I fell and fell . . . into a great, black sea.”

His gaze returned and settled on Rey. Her lungs burned from holding her breath.

“Wh-What are you doing here?” she whispered raggedly.

He shrugged and took in his surroundings. “I don’t even know where _here_ is . . .”

She struggled to her feet. She clutched her wrap tightly. She desperately wanted to believe she was having a nightmare, but everything about him tweaked her senses. She could feel his force energy as surely as she could feel the cold stones beneath her feet. The feeling of his presence was potent.

“Y-You’re on Dandor,” she replied, she pointed at the amulet, “ _kriff_. . .did that bring you here?”

His head tilted as he scrutinized the bronze casting. He grimaced; his face contorted. He clutched his gut and fell to his knees. Instinctively, Rey rushed forward but stopped short. She hovered there, not knowing what to do. The longer she stared at him, the sharper his image became. He wore the same clothes she had last seen him in, his hair fluttered around his head.

“M-My stars,” she murmured, “y-you’re really here.”

He lumbered to his feet again. His skin was almost translucent. She could see faint, black veins in his cheeks.

“No, I’m only partway here.”

“What-?” she asked.

He looked at the ground, he waved his large fingers at the stones.

“The sea calls me back,” his voice reverberated.

His eyes flicked up and flitted back and forth over her face. He glanced down to where her wrap parted at her throat. He scowled. He thrust out his hand and the ring jumped towards him. She was caught off guard a moment and found herself tugged along with it before she slapped a hand over it and stumbled back. She gulped at the power he still wielded. His strength was unnerving.

“Where have I seen that before?” he growled.

Rey’s hand closed around it protectively. Ben’s lip curled. He glanced back towards the house.

“Still seeking that belonging, are you?” he muttered. “So desperate for it, you’d welcome the claim of the first person who came along? Who is it then?”

Her stomach dropped. Her skin flushed cold. She swallowed a rise of nausea. His probing made her feel tawdry.

“I-I’m not going to explain myself to you,” her voice shook, “frack, even in death you are still so . . . damned selfish.”

He flinched. Ripples of pain washed off him.

“I tried to be selfless once,” his voice quavered, “and look where it’s gotten me.”

He clutched at his stomach and collapsed to his knees once more. When he raised his head, his eyes glistened with unshed tears. His pain was so intense, it stole her breath. Mere seconds passed before her knees gave out as well. She collapsed to the courtyard floor again.

“Huh!”

She felt a strange sensation in her stomach, like a magnet pulled at her mid-section.

“B-Ben,” she cried, “what is happening?”

He grunted. “It’s dragging me back; the sea wants me back. They keep trying to fish me out. Every time they do it, it’s like a thousand claws tearing off chunks of my flesh at the same time.”

Rey clenched her teeth. Her vision blurred. Through a haze, she felt what he had felt. The despair of a desolate darkness, then the splitting of his being as he was yanked from one reality to the next. He had been repeatedly and brutally . . _. tortured_ by the process, there was no other word for it.

“P-Please,” he cried, “help me. Make it stop.”

Rey screamed. His agony was unbearable. She saw the black water again and the circling teeth. She sensed the hunger of the void . . . and started to spiral into the abyss along with him. Ben grasped at her mind like a drowning victim attempting to keep his head above water. He clung to anything he could with the force. She felt the seams of her wrap popping and the necklace cutting painfully into her flesh. When she forced open her eyes, the amulet was spinning between them and glowing brighter.

“P-Please, Rey,” he pleaded, his image flickered, “please . . . help me.”

However, she was immobilized by the pain. She could not extract herself from the grips of it. The darkness closed in on them both. Another scream ripped from her throat. She heard a shout and glanced up. She blinked at a familiar form wavering through the haze.

“Poe,” she whispered.

Ben’s face contorted. His eyes had gone black again.

“Not him!” he howled. “He can’t be the one.”

Then came a blessed whirring. Unexpectedly, D-0 rolled between them. The droid looked back and forth between her and Ben.

“I-I-I contain it,” D-0 sputtered.

He flipped open a compartment on his side, reached out a tiny arm and tucked the amulet inside.

“No!” Ben cried.

As soon as the flap on the side of D-0 closed, Ben and all the darkness vanished in a blink. Rey huffed as the pain receded. She gathered her wrap and sat up. D-0 rolled back and forth.

“I c-c-contain it,” he repeated.

She nodded even though she still shook. D-0 carried something incredibly powerful and yet, she sensed nothing.

“D-0 . . . y-you’ve done this before?” she whispered.

The little droid wagged his head up and down. “I-I-I carry them for my m-m-master.”

“That was your job?” she asked, then realization dawned. “That was your job! O-Oh, you poor thing.”

Suddenly, a lot of things she had observed about D-0 made sense from the strange connection she had always had with him to the stutter she could never repair. Her eyes misted. The only way to conceal such darkness was to be imbued with an equal amount of light. What torment the little droid must have suffered in his former life!

“I p-p-please you, mum?”

She nodded quickly. She choked back tears.

“Yes, yes, good job, buddy.”

D-0 whooped, whirled in a circle, and rolled back towards the house. Rey rose unsteadily to her feet. She stumbled a few steps, but her vision blurred. The lights of the Mejia home stung her eyes. She thought she was going to collapse again when she was caught in Poe’s arms.

“A-mia! Rey, Sweetheart?” his voice was frantic. “Kriff, did I just see who I think I saw?”

Before she could fall, she was scooped up into his embrace. She crumpled against his shirt and inhaled his scent. There were still faint traces of the natural chlorine from the spring. His heart thudded beneath her ear. Relief coursed through her system.

“I should never have left you,” he muttered.

Poe carried her back to their room at the house. Once inside, he set her gently on the bed, draped a blanket over her shoulders and then pulled her onto his lap. He kissed her forehead. Rey’s teeth clacked. She hissed as she moved.

“What happened, Sweetheart? Are you hurt? Damnit! What did he do to you?”

He checked her legs and arms while wondering under his breath about Ben’s appearance. His fingers quivered over an angry red welt on her thigh.

“Did he do that?” he spat. “Fuck me . . . I’ll kill the bastard again myself.”

She shook her head. Her tongue felt thick in her mouth. She had not told Poe about her visions, but then, she had not known if they were real or not. There could be no doubt about what she saw because Poe had also seen Ben. His fingers pushed aside her hair. A string of cuss words erupted from his lips.

“Fuck! Your neck . . . w-what the-? Fuck!” his voice strained.

Rey reaching trembling fingers to where her neck stung like it had been cut. The chain must have abraded her skin. The reality of what happened hit her with full force.

“He didn’t attack me,” she replied at last, “he’s . . . trapped in a force eddy. Something, or someone is victimizing him-”

Poe stiffened. “Good.”

She lifted her head. “N-No, not good. He’s being tortured.”

Rey relayed her experience, desperate to make him understand, but still could not quite bring herself to repeat how Ben reacted when he saw the ring nor the caustic words he had uttered. Poe stayed silent the entire time, save for the harshness of his breaths as he listened. Occasionally, he huffed. When she finished (mostly) detailing what she had seen, he remained quiet. Inside, however, his rage and despair bubbled. Finally, he shifted beneath her and spoke.

“So, he’s not . . . gone?” his voice was flat. “He’s really not dead.”

Rey swallowed. “I am not sure. There is phenomenon that I have heard of and don’t fully understand. Some of the ancient texts describe a ‘world between worlds’ that consists of doorways between time and space. Of course, like any of the old writings, they are impossibly vague, but it makes sense he might be caught in a place like that.”

“Can he return?” Poe’s voice had an edge.

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Poe gently extracted himself and began to pace the room. Every time he glanced at her; his scowl deepened.

“That is it! I am done with this planet. We need to get you off and Dandor and away from Kylo Ren and this cursed place. Maz will have to find another way-”

Rey’s spine straightened. “No! We are so close to getting those artifacts back and . . . and I can’t . . . I can’t . . .”

She gulped. There was no good way to say what was in her thoughts. Poe stopped mid-pace. His head tilted and his brows came together. His fingers flexed and shook. He jammed them into his hair.

“You can’t what?” his voice tremored.

She curled her fingers into her palm. “I can’t just leave him there.”

Poe stepped back as if she had hit him. He inhaled a shaky breath. His eyes were large with confusion.

“Sweetheart, that man is a monster.”

She shook her head. “I know he did a lot of awful things-”

“Awful things?” he asked incredulously. “Rey, he was a maniac a-and . . . a butcher.”

Rey winced.

“His mind had been poisoned by Snoke and Palpatine. He turned away from the dark side before the end. He fought alongside me and s-saved my life. He sacrificed his life . . . _for me_. I am the reason he’s . . . wherever he is . . .”

Poe rubbed a hand over his face. “Did it occur to you that maybe he deserves to be there? That he probably deserves whatever hell he may have brought upon himself?”

Rey pulled the blanket more snugly around her body. She did not begrudge Poe his opinion. When Ben had been Kylo Ren, his behavior had been horrendous. She had learned from Finn that he had even tormented Poe for information. Yet, she felt he had only been a pawn and a plaything. Had her parents not hidden her on Jakku, she may very well have become a vessel for her grandfather herself and committed infinitely worse atrocities. By rights, she should have been the one to suffer, she was the Palpatine heir. Yet, she had been sheltered while Ben Solo had been thrown to the wolves.

“I can’t make you understand.”

Poe’s face flushed. He pulled at his collar like his shirt was uncomfortable.

“No. . . I don’t think you can convince me he changed . . . huh, d-damn . . . are you in love with him? Is that it? Is he your soul mate or something?”

Rey flung her blanket off. She started yanking on clothes. It was a harder question to answer than she envisioned. Truth was, she had thought she and Ben shared some cosmic romantic connection. She had felt the vibration of it whenever they had connected. Yet, when she had kissed him, she had not felt much beyond relief for being alive. She remembered being surprised in the moment that there was not more, like she had been tugging at a tether that had nothing on the end of it.

“That’s it, isn’t it?” Poe growled. “He’s the guy.”

Rey spun, jerked the drawstring on her pants too tightly and tied it with shaking hands.

“What do you want me to say?” she cried. “I don’t know what he is . . . but he’s not . . . ”

She felt split down the middle again. In the periphery of her vision competing scenarios played like propaganda films. She had seen one of those films before, a shared life with Ben Solo. She had been so convinced it was her future at the time, she had thought she could march in and save his soul single-handedly.

“He’s not what?” Poe ground out.

“He’s n-not . . .”

She gulped. _‘He’s not you,’_ she wanted to say. However, her tongue felt as if someone had stuck it with a sedative. She could not physically murmur the sentiment. A moment passed, then another. Poe’s face fell and he waved his hands in defeat.

“I can’t,” he rasped.

Without another word, he left.


	15. Chapter the Fifteenth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, of course everything is messed up now. Poe is feeling about as low as a guy can feel. Rey, god love her, has some weird ideas of obligation. Anyway, maybe if these two could talk to one another rather than living in their heads, they might be able to get over themselves. Alas, they are dumbasses.

Time slowed. Eons passed. Rey breathed in and out. Her breaths were all she could hear. She could no longer feel the paving stones of the Mejia’s patio beneath her bum. Somewhere in the back of her mind she registered that she was floating above the surface of Dandor, blessedly disconnected from its churning darkness.

“Are you there?” she whispered inside her mind.

Her query was met with silence. She pulled strength from deep within her core.

“Are you with me?” her internal voice reverberated with more resonance.

Her heart thumped, then thumped again. An eternity passed in a second.

“Yessssss,” an utterance leaked from a shadowy crevice.

She sucked in a breath.

“I still cannot believe you are alive.”

“Alive?” Ben’s voice flared in her ears, loud and then soft like someone cranked the volume knob up and down. “Alive is a relative term.”

Rey snorted. “Do not be cagey with me! I am about fed up with your comings and goings. We need to figure this out.”

“A-Always . . . sssoooo . . . impatient!”

“Look, buddy, I do not have to do this . . . I could leave you to rot-”

“I don’t rot,” his voice snapped like twigs before it mellowed again “I don’t eat. I don’t sleep. I don’t do anything.”

Rey huffed. “We’ve established that. Aaarg, you’re so melodramatic.”

Ben’s presence seemed to retreat a moment and the void in her mind fell silent again. Rey held her breath. Once again, she wondered if she was delusional. Then she remembered that Poe had seen Ben as well.

“S-Speak, to me, Ben!” she growled. “How do I help you?”

She was enveloped by a sudden silence. She could not even hear her own breaths anymore. She waited for several moments, until time stretched like a resin and began to thin.

“You have to let me out,” Ben’s plea caused her to jump.

Faintly, she could feel that her heart had sped up but disconnection from her physical reality took her further and further away from her body. She found herself flying through a dark tube with invisible walls. Numbness set in.

“How?”

Ben's voice retreated into the void. “The artifact. It shines a light, thins the walls down here . . . but I cannot come through. There’s still a skin that needs to be pierced.”

Rey flailed in the darkness. Twinkles of light turned to metallic ribbons. She was falling face first towards that endless sea again. She spun in place, but the way forward and back seemed to blend together.

“Pierce it with what? Ben?” she called. “Ben?! Please…”

But he was gone, and the deep dark sea hurtled towards her face.

* * *

Poe eased his steps as he approached Rey. He gritted his teeth with every footfall, uncertain if he should turn back and leave her to her meditation.

She floated several feet up off the paving stones of the Mejia’s back courtyard with her legs crossed, hands resting on her knees and palms turned to the sky. Her eyes were closed but her chin was tilted up as if she sought a light in the dark. The wind that buffeted his hair and stung his neck seemed to glance off an invisible bubble encasing her form. Her brows were drawn together, and a troubled frown flickered in her expression, as if she sparred with someone.

He heard a clacking followed by thumps. Beneath her, paving stones lifted in several rows, flung off dirt as they turned over, and tamped back down. The effect was kind of a renewal of the surface of the courtyard. Perhaps an unconscious grasp at control by Rey, he wondered.

He sighed. He was about to leave but her lips parted.

“Ben,” she whispered raggedly.

Instantly, Poe’s neck went stiff. He stretched it sideways and muttered a curse. His eyes scanned the perimeter. There was no dark, brooding form stalking about, but Poe was not taking any chances.

“Hey!” he growled.

Rey’s eyes popped open. Her lips rounded to an ‘o’. Whatever spell she had been under broke and she dropped to the courtyard on her butt. Wind penetrated her shield and tore at her clothes, whipping the long linens of her wraps in his direction.

“Oof,” she sputtered as she blinked at him.

He rearranged his scarf. The wind kept dragging it backwards against his throat, which just added to the choking sensation he already experienced.

“I gotta go,” he snipped.

“N-Now?” she brushed herself off and clamored to her feet. “Why?”

“Something’s wrong. I can’t get a hold of that minister guy. I want to cruise by the temple and see what’s up.”

“Oh, okay,” she rubbed her arms, “just let me grab my bag-”

He waved his hand. His chest felt tight. He longed to bundle her in their speeder and retrace their steps to the Falcon, not share her with the beguiling minister or Kylo Ren and any other hanger-on within a million-mile radius. 

“I’ll go myself, don’t worry. I just wanted to tell you what I was doing.”

Rey stopped midstride and whirled. Her eyes flashed.

“You are not going alone.”

Poe fisted his hands and crossed his arms. Heavens help him, when her eyes lit with belligerence like that, he wanted nothing more than to surrender to her wrath. She sounded pissed, protective, and impatient. He shifted on his feet. Sometimes, he wished she would just seize him with the force and-

He cleared his throat and shook his head. “Yeah, I am. I won’t be long.”

She cocked her head to one side and thrust out her hand. For several moments, she stood there with a frown, her eyes held his fast. When nothing happened, her expression faltered. She flexed her fingers towards the house again. Then her nose wrinkled, and her eyes skittered sideways.

He narrowed his gaze. “What’s going on?”

Behind them, a window exploded with a crash. She grimaced; her shoulders hunched. Poe turned his head just as a sack whizzed by. It slapped hard into Rey’s outstretched hand. He glanced at the bag she held, then the broken window and back to her again. A few more pieces of glass tinkled against the ground as they tumbled from the broken frame.

She shook her head. “Don’t-”

Poe harrumphed. “Smooth!”

“Oh, do shut it,” she muttered.

Rey waved her hand at the house and the glass slid together and flew back into place. However, almost the moment she finished, BB8 and D-0 busted through the window, screeching electronically as they were propelled across the courtyard. She turned with both hands up and froze them mid-air.

“Some latency there, hmm?” Poe quipped.

His words died on his lips when he noticed she was shaking. Her knees wobbled. He started towards her, but she lifted her chin stubbornly and straightened her spine.

“Hey,” he said roughly, “I got this, okay? Why don’t you just stay with the family for a couple hours, finish . . . f-finish whatever you were doing?”

Her face flushed a guilty pink. She moved her lips to speak but Poe rushed out his next words. He really did not want to hear about her rescue attempts for the worst human being he had ever known.

“I will be back before you know it,” he assured her, “and hey, maybe I’ll get lucky. Maybe the minister will sell me the remaining artifacts and we can make plans to leave this place once and for all.”

Rey nodded. Her shoulders slumped.

“Promise me you’ll be careful?”

Poe wagged his head adamantly.

“Yeah, of course. I mean, don’t worry. I may not be a jedi, but I do have my own sense of things. I’ve survived this long, right?”

* * *

Poe pulled the speeder to a stop outside the K’Qu’Lir temple. It was completely dark, even the sign was off. BB8 beeped apprehensively.

“Yeah, I know buddy, dammit,” Poe muttered. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s home.”

He holstered his blaster, powered down the speeder but kept the drive on standby.

“I’m just going to take a quick look around, BB,” he murmured. “See if anyone is around back. Be ready to fire this old beast up, alright?”

The little droid whooped in acknowledgement and plugged himself into the dash. Poe slid the canopy back and hopped out. He glanced around. This temple was some distance from some of the more popular venues and there were less worshipers about. He cursed himself for leaving his journey so late in the light cycle. The sun was already plummeting in the sky again. He made it a few steps down the street when steps caught up with him.

“Hey, guy,” he heard a voice at his back.

He whirled and tread back just as the fellow thrust some fliers at him.

“Half price off at the- oh, hey, man! You’re back.”

Poe nodded.

“Where’s your lady?” the husker asked with a toothy grin.

“She’s . . . busy,” Poe replied warily, “seems kinda quiet around here. What happened to everyone?”

There was something a little too knowing about the guy, and he was older than Poe had originally thought. 

“Oh, yeah, this place goes up and down all the time,” the man chuckled as he shrugged in his long coat, “they’ll be back, don’t fret. They’re probably just prepping for the long night. Things get a bit wild when the sun sets on that day. A person’s gotta be prepared.”

“Oh yeah,” Poe prodded, “how so?”

The man laughed in a raspy voice, his eyes glinted in a way that caused Poe to retreat again.

“I find myself the brightest café around, that’s what I do,” he purred, “it gets a darker than people realize. Best to stay out of shadowy places, if you pick up what I’m dropping.”

“Right, well, thanks,” Poe murmured a reply.

He turned to go but the fellow tugged his sleeve. “Don’t return here without your flashlight, my man.”

“Noted.”

Poe shrugged the fellow and his unsettling advice off. He was not naïve, he knew Dandor wasn’t safe, but he wasn’t worried about himself. No one cared about his comings and goings. He pulled over a hood and casually strolled down the street. It was not until he was sure the street hustler had rounded a corner that he doubled back and crept around the temple. He peered in every window and tapped at every door panel. There were no signs of activity anywhere inside the building. He growled and kicked a discarded air cylinder in the back lot. He was about to head back to the speeder when a figure moved in the dark.

The movement set Poe on edge. He skipped a step as a tall form draped in dark cloth stepped from behind a derelict transport. There was a sudden crack, and something fizzed by his head like a blare of static.

“Crap!” he cursed before tapping his wrist comm, “BB, I hope you’re listening! Fire up the speeder. We need to make a quick exit.”

“For fuck’s sake, grab him,” someone shouted.

Poe yanked out his blaster and shot backwards blindly after another few shots erupted around him. He just made it to the speeder when he felt an impact like a hammer blow and lightning shot through his back.

“Unf!” he pitched into the open canopy.

He laid over its side, draped halfway in and out of the unit, unable to move. His legs dangled uselessly beneath him. His fingers quivered and his arms hung like limp noodles.

“BB!” he groaned, “I-I can’t get in. I’m stunned or something.”

BB8 chirped reassurance and next thing Poe knew, the speeder pitched up and sideways and he was flipped into the cab. He folded over into the front seat before half sliding off the seat into the foot well.

“Go, buddy!” Poe huffed upside down, his cheek pressed into the floor. “Punch it.”

The speeder lurched ahead. The canopy slammed shut. Volleys of blaster shots slammed into the old conveyance, shattering its windows, and ripping off panels. For a few seconds, Poe thought they were done for, but less and less shots hit the speeder, and finally, they seemed to be out of harm’s way.

BB8 squawked and squealed as they flew through the streets.

“No! Don’t go straight back to the Mejias,” Poe barked, his neck strained from being wedged in an unnatural position. “Circle around a bit. Make sure we’re not being followed.”

Every one of Poe’s limbs tingled. He finally regained enough strength to wiggle his hips off the bench seat onto the floor. He panted as he stared up at his little droid. Street light pulsed through the shattered windows. Wind whistled through the fragments. He flicked a shard from his chin. He winced at the shock of pain to his spine. Still, he felt mostly intact.

“Thanks, buddy, I owe you my life.”

BB8 whistled a rejoinder.

“Yeah, yeah, fine, I already owe you that. How about my first born then, you little mercenary?”

Poe knew as soon as he said that, it was a mistake. BB8’s head bopped up and down and he jangled in delight.

He wiped a hand over his face. “No, no! Nothing’s changed! It’s you and me forever, buddy. It was just an expression. I’m not having any kids-”

BB8 ratcheted his excitement up another notch. His chirps were so frenetic that Poe missed every other utterance, but he heard enough to get the gist.

“Whoa, just settle down! You are most definitely not acquiring a miniature Jedi. Me and Rey . . . ”

Poe swallowed. In the span of a heartbeat, he replayed every moment he had spent with Rey recently in his head. The speeder jostled him about on the floor as he relived every touch, every glance, and every word they had uttered to one another. He stared at the rusty dash, its frayed wires and the rivets popping loose along the underside of the dash panel. He was as broken, diminished and as past his prime as this stupid speeder, he scoffed at himself. He could not even properly defend or keep himself out of harm's way, let alone someone like Rey. Reality descended on him, and he was crushed with the weight of it. No matter how he felt about the slight Jedi, he could never compete with the likes of Ben Solo. He was just this peripheral guy in her orbit, not her dyad in the force.

“Me and Rey are just . . .”

His voice was hoarse.

“We’re nothing, BB8,” he wheezed, “because I’m nothing.”


	16. Chapter the Sixteenth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> OOOOOOPS. 
> 
> Poe lets something slip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I hate to ask this, but if anyone wants to help promote this work on Tumblr, I would be forever grateful. Please consider recommending this story! At the end of my works, I always choose my most active readers to gift the work they followed. I really love how this story is going and where it is headed and am excited to get to some major angst. Thanks so much :)

It was the sputtering and loud pops from the afterburners misfiring that drew Rey and the entire Mejia household from the dinner table. Rey stepped around the three tall middle children who took after their mother. Mish, Keenin and Henfin chattered anxiously about the state of Poe’s speeder. 

“Kriff,” Rey breathed when she saw it.

The damaged craft shuddered to a stop halfway down the drive and then a loud screech arose from the left engine. She saw the canopy jerk open and Poe scrambled out, followed by BB8. Rey felt the vibration of what was to come, she jumped into action and sprinted towards the speeder with her hand outstretched.

“No, Rey, don’t!” Poe shouted.

A jet of flame tore from the side of the engine, then a flare like a miniature sun exploding alighted.

“Mmph!” she forced the blast back and away from Poe, BB8 and the Mejia home.

Several of the triangular trees behind the speeder tore open and lit on fire. She channeled every ounce of energy she could to contain the eruption but ended up directing most of it up into the air. A large, inverted bell of smoke and gas rose above the canopy of the triangular trees before the higher winds began tearing it apart.

Poe reached her a second later, panting. Rey had dropped to a knee and struggled to stand up again.

“Damnit, I shouldn’t have tried to come back,” he muttered as he hauled her to her feet, “I-I just . . . needed to make sure . . .”

Rey grabbed him by the wrists once she was on her feet and assessed every inch of him in a flash. He had been hit by a blaster shot, but it had only temporarily incapacitated him. He ached from the encounter, but he was otherwise okay. She saw figures he had seen and heard voices that had threatened him. However, when she looked up and their eyes met, she felt a shock of pain from something else entirely. Failure, bitterness, and utter defeat battered her like a thunderstorm. His eyes shone with a liquid film of misery. Turmoil roiled just under the surface of his skin, causing the small muscles of his face to twitch as he attempted to suppress his emotions.

“Poe,” she grabbed her chest, “you’re not okay . . . wh-what’s wrong? What happened?”

Poe jerked away from her and stumbled back. “Why do you bother to ask? You can just see it all in a blink, can’t you?”

She swallowed. He was angry. She shook her head slowly.

He dropped his chin and looked up at her skeptically. “You _can_ see everything . . . if you choose to look. If you _want_ to see.”

Rey scrunched her nose. She was so confused.

“I see things, events, feel energy and yes, sometimes the impressions they make on a person. I can’t read minds,” she hissed in a hushed tone.

She felt off kilter in front of the Mejias. Poe did not even appear to register that they were there. His frustrations were reserved for her alone. He stalked forward. A single brow quivered up.

“Have you ever bothered to try?” he whispered raggedly.

“Y-You told me n-not to-”

“Well, I give you permission now.”

For a second, he stood there with an expectant look. She could sense something within him, it was combustible and consuming. He was raging with it; amber and violet tones blinded her peripheral vision and began to close in around her much like the dark sea she had escaped earlier. She drew back from him internally, not ready to be drowned by the intensity of the feeling. A light snuffed deep in his pupils. He gulped and cleared his throat.

“Th-That’s what I thought,” he murmured.

Then he whirled, his hands tugged at his hair like he was going to pull it out. He strode straight through the throng of spectators, cursing with every step. Gor said something to him but Poe waved him off. She was about to follow when Cos blocked her path.

“Best let him collect himself, child,” she said gently.

Rey watched him march straight past the house towards the garages. Her eyes prickled with frustrated tears. She felt arms close around her shoulders as she sniffled. The rest of the family skulked away.

“Why . . . why do they have to be such stubborn assholes?” she blurted as she wiped her nose with the back of her sleeve.

Cos sighed. “Our other halves are like that, my dear. They challenge us to be whole.”

Rey’s heart stumbled in her chest. She felt a prickling sensation crawl up over her neck and sting her scalp. There was such a ring of truth to Cos’ words that her soul momentarily shifted in her frame and her entire reality seemed to separate into multiple instances like cards in a deck fanned out. Her eyes darted around. Everything ghosted as if a flash had temporarily given her double vision.

“He’s not my other half,” she stuttered.

Rey shrugged from Cos’ embrace and blinked up at her somewhat out of focus visage. For a moment, she thought she saw General Leia’s face overlay her host’s features.

“Why do you say that?” Cos asked curiously.

Rey gave her head a shake. “He-He can’t be.”

Her vision swam again. Amber hues burst from behind Cos’ head before Leia’s face came into sharp focus for a tick with a skeptical constriction to her luminous eyes. Her voice reverberated about Rey’s head.

“Mm, sure about that?”

Rey clapped a hand over her mouth. In the next instant, Leia was gone, and Cos remained with a concerned expression.

“Are you well, child?”

Rey found herself retreating. “I- ah, no actually, I think I will go lie down.”

Cos dipped her head. “Of course.”

* * *

Rey turned over restlessly, unsure if she was awake or asleep. She clutched at the empty space next to her on the bed, shuddered, and tried to dispel the visage of her double-edged lightsaber twirling and clashing against a second blue saber. She watched the yellow beams of her weapon bleed and turn red as she smashed it against the blue beam. The clang of energy and balloon of heat every time they impacted exploded through her body. Lightning blasted from the tips of her fingers. When she looked through all the pulses and flashes of light, she saw Poe on his back on the ground, his arms thrown up as if to defend himself. His face shone with sweat and his eyes blazed with fear.

“Huu-uh,” she jolted awake.

She pitched over the side of the bed and dry heaved. She was damp all over as if she had been sweating but shivered from a bone-deep chill. Her life had become a nightmare. Anxiety hunted her every moment, she couldn't even outpace it in her dreams or premonitions or fevered imagination, or whatever her visions might be. She panted for several moments then raised her head and squinted at the light pouring through the room’s lone window. She shook her head to clear the fog from her brain. She had fallen asleep when it had been light, she thought. It was light again. Damn this planet, how many times had the sun rose and set, she wondered? 

In fact, days and days had passed since Poe had returned from his ill-fated trip into the city. Their mission had gone from bad to worse with the destruction of their speeder and the disappearance of the Minister and subsequently, they were stuck in a limbo.

The setbacks had broken something in Poe, and she had not been able to have a proper conversation with him since. He had become adept at keeping himself busy and unavailable for any serious discussions. He had also avoided sleeping in the same room. The few times they had passed in the corridors of the Mejia home, their gazes locked but an instant before he cast his eyes down and his brow creased.

Meanwhile her attempts to rectify Ben Solo’s situation had been fruitless. She had even tried to use the amulet again, to no avail. It was as if she could send out a probe and observe, but neither get herself fully there nor extract her quarry.

Rey grabbed her clothes from the nearby chair. She grimaced. Everything she had brought with her was getting a bit musty. She quickly yanked on her soiled garb and ventured out, determined to find Poe and corner him, if need be. It was past time they spoke.

Yet, he was not an easy quarry to find. Somehow, he had managed to close himself off and while she could sense he was about, she could not pinpoint his location. She wandered the maze of rooms and halls in her search, bumping into the various family members (most of the Mejia offspring had the curious habit of walking around while engrossed in a text or tablet) and stepping out of the way of the droids and little Friss as they barreled by in some sort of Tuscan raider cosplay.

“My dear girl, where do you think you are going in such a hurry?” Cos dropped an arm in Rey’s path.

“Oh, sorry, I-ah- I am looking for my friend-”

Cos adjusted her sash and lifted her chin. “Your Mr. Dameron is out back working on one of our decrepit old crafts. He has some notion to get it going again.”

Rey nodded. “Okay, thanks-”

Cos shook her head. “Not so quickly, Miss Girl. Now, I require little from my guests and I do appreciate the remodeling you’ve been doing on our courtyard, but I have a few expectations on your upkeep. You are obligated to eat, an imperative since I know you have not eaten much in days, then to take yourself to the fresher, and finally, to bring all your garments to me for cleaning. I will accept no excuses. I forbid you to go find your young man until these tasks are complete.”

Rey’s face heated. She tilted her head down to assess her clothing.

“Oh . . . oof, do I smell?”

Cos’ brows tweaked up. Rey flushed warm all over.

“Kriiiiiiff.”

Cos chuckled. “You are anxious to have it out with him, mm?”

Rey nodded.

The matriarch smiled serenely. “Very well, I will lend you something to wear while you await your laundry but it’s still the fresher first for you first!”

* * *

Poe stilled, he could feel Rey’s determination permeate his consciousness as she neared. He had successfully dodged her for nearly one-hundred and fifteen hours, knowing all along it could not go on indefinitely (plus, it was torture trying to save himself from utter destruction when all he wanted to do was indulge in any scrap of affection she might offer him before her one true dyad returned from the dead). He would not be able to fend off their inevitable conversation and could already hear their words on the air.

He sighed and fortified himself with an inhalation. He leaned his forehead against the cool metal of the ship and closed his eyes. He waited until her presence absolutely blinded his mind’s eye before he raised his head and peered in her direction.

“Mother of-” he whispered.

He blinked several times. His throat constricted. He issued a silent curse to the lady of the house, for Rey’s attire was no casual coincidence.

Dandor’s setting sun shone bright and yellow at her back. Its warm rays illuminated the outline of her slender form through the edges of a gauzy, cream-coloured dress. The frock fit snug in the scoop-necked bodice but flared from her waist to her knees. Her hair, piled messily on her head, gleamed like a crown. His breath hitched as he took in her pale, slim calves below the skirts. Her arms were bare for a change except for the capped sleeves over her shoulders.

When his lungs began to burn, he finally inhaled a quivering breath. She looked exactly like one of the village girls he had admired as a teenager on Yavin 4, except so much more fragile. Her shoulders turned as she looked about. She had not yet spied him deep in the bay.

Like an utter coward, he rolled away along the side of the small ship he had been working on and padded around behind it to fortify himself. Carefully, he picked his way up the rear ramp, through the narrow hull of the craft and into the cockpit where he slid into the low captain’s seat. He crossed his arms and reclined back a bit, hoping she would miraculously disappear and leave him alone to mire in his misery.

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

Poe flopped his head sideways to see Rey had climbed the work platform next to the cockpit. She hiked a brow.

“Did you really think that would work?” she asked with her bottom lip jut out.

He sighed and shook his head. With a flick of her fingers, the dome-like canopy over the cockpit swung open.

She poked her lips to one side as she shifted to one foot with arms crossed as well, her tilted stance communicated a cargo-load’s worth of attitude. Her skirts fluttered around her knees as if ruffled by her annoyance. He huffed out a breath from his nostrils.

“Where did you get that dress?” he asked dryly.

Rey squinted at him suspiciously. They both knew the answer to that, of course. She lifted her chin and wiggled her hips to make the skirts swish.

“It’s nice, isn’t it?” she murmured. “I’ve never worn a dress before.”

He swallowed, averted his gaze, and stared straight ahead.

“Looks terrible on you,” he lied.

“Oh, is that how it’s going to be, Dameron?” her voice was menacingly low.

For a second, he felt bereft because he expected her to leave. Then, she grumbled something, grabbed her skirts, and stepped in through the open canopy. He jumped in his seat as she swung a leg over him and settled down onto his lap. Her skirts bunched around her and between them. His hands hovered either side of her, suspended in shock. He stared into her perturbed face, now only inches away. He blinked at her rapidly. He looked down at her chest. She still wore his mother’s ring.

He was in trouble.

Then, she adjusted her position on his lap with a dangerous sparkle in her eyes and he experienced a jolt of awareness through his entire being. He raked in a breath, and another until he was panting. She laid her hands on his chest and spread out her fingers.

“I have been very patient with you, General,” she said softly, her eyes flashing again, “but I have had about enough of your ignoring me.”

He nodded. His tongue felt like old rubber, stiff from misuse. Her fingers were warm and insistent through his thin shirt. She moved her hips again and his mind started careening sideways like a wobbling top. His hands fell on the top of her skirts, then crept under to her bare thighs. He was already half engorged when his fingertips encountered more bare skin.

A shock of blood rushed to his groin. “Ffffu-uck! Y-You’re not wearing anything under this.”

Rey dipped her head slightly. Her pupils were large, her lips slightly parted. She licked them and he was lost. His hands cupped her bare bottom and dragged her along his swollen cock. He grunted and bucked his hips up at the intimate feel of her mound nestled in his lap. All that separated him from possessing her again was his damn pants. Poe lurched forward in the seat and kissed her eagerly with an open mouth. His feet pressed hard against the footwell. She met him just as hungrily, her tongue darting inside.

He groaned into her mouth and rocked her on his member again.

“Fuck, sweetheart, _a-mia_ . . . I have ached for you-”

“If it’s even half as much as I have suffered, you deserve it,” she scolded him with a rasp.

She hurriedly tugged down the top of her dress and shrugged from her capped sleeves. He dove down as soon as she was exposed and sucked a nipple into his mouth. She gasped and clutched the back of his head, her fingers threaded into his hair. She tasted like heaven, like _Rey_. Her nipple was tight as he compressed it with his lips and rolled it with his tongue, she jerked and shuddered on top of him. He was straining so hard that he thought he might tear open his trousers. His fingers squeezed her bum, reveling in the supple feel of her round arse.

Her cries were like a song in his ears, the clearest of bells beckoning him home. He lifted his head only to assail her other breast with his attentions. He could not get enough of the feel of her flesh pressed to the roof of his mouth and the slide of it along his tongue.

“Poe,” she begged him, “unh!”

Her fingers worked their way down the buttons of his shirt. With a growl, his hands flew to his fly. He wrenched it open, lifted her and himself and pushed his pants down to around his knees. There was not time to discard them, or fully disrobe. He felt her grip his shaft and then her heat compressed around him.

He dropped his head back against the captain’s chair as she sank down. It was like the most delicious pain he had ever felt, an enveloping of sensation that caused his belly to coil and his sack to tighten. Once she was fully seated to the hilt, more blood rushed up his shaft and he became excruciatingly hard. He groaned long and loud as she clenched on him and her slick wetness cause him to slip deeper.

He flexed and cycled his hips, desperate to slake the lust within him. She anchored herself to his neck and shoulders, flattening her small breasts against his chest and meeting each of his thrusts with equal vigor.

Her cries were both soft and loud in his ear as he pumped his hips up with a firm grip on her backside. Soon, she was bouncing on his lap and he had no thought but for the tension building deep down and the darts of pleasure into his groin trying to aggregate. Distantly, he became aware of her cries reaching a pitch and her body shaking with an impending release.

“Sweetheart, fuck, I’m gonna-”

“Yes, Poe, unf, yes-!”

A well burst inside him. Pleasure blasted through him like a cannonball and then hit and rolled in his peak. Waves caused his cock to spasm and push out his cum. Electric pulses shook him to the core. He gathered her against him as he emptied and buried his face in her neck.

Then, for what seemed like the thousandth time, he followed up by confessing his feelings.

“Sweetheart . . . _a-mia_ , fuck . . . I love you. I love you so much it hurts.”

Only this time, he forgot to say it in Yavinian.


End file.
